Could Smiling Kill Germs?

Smiling changes your facial structure: face cheeks don’t sag, and your color perks up. You retain tone in your face, which means you are burning a few extra calories. A smile reduces your stress, brings down cortisol (the blubber around your center in mid-age), lowers blood pressure, and releases endorphins. That’s a lot for something that is free, and you can practice anytime.

According to Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of HealthTap, a smile stimulates the brain as much as 2,000 chocolate bars, or as much as receiving over $20,000. Mmmm, well, ok. Smiles are powerful. People think you are smarter and remember you more when you dazzle them with an honest smile. It speaks confidence. A smile humors you, and maybe someone else.

All of this leads to living a fuller, happier life, and living longer.  So why aren’t you smiling more? Someone out there always has a worse life than yours, and yet we wear our doubt about life as though it was critical, or that it mattered. In 10 years, your drama will be funny.

Only one third of adults smile more than 20 times a day, and that is 20 times less than children, who seem to smile all the time. Lighten up. Smiling is an experience. Wear your life lightly.

Oh, could smiling kill more germs? I have no idea. But it couldn’t hurt.

That’s Aging Intelligently.