2024-03-12 15:42:59
Could smiling be considered as a new treatment for depression? In any case, it would be the most natural way to lead your brain to produce dopamine, this neurotransmitter associated with good mood.
Dopamine, a molecule associated with good mood
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter allowing communication within the nervous system and directly influencing behavior. This biochemical molecule thus accentuates the actions considered positive such as the feeling of pleasure when eating a healthy food, the reward, the motivation or even the taking of risks. But dopamine is often known for its mood regulation functionsclosely linked to well-being, even happiness.
Thus, the mood disorders like depression or bipolarism can generally be explained by an imbalance in dopamine activity.
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Simply smiling causes the brain to produce dopamine
This is a fact now well established scientifically: the simple act of smiling causes the brain to secrete dopamine. There are numerous studies on the subject, supporting electrical stimulation. The smile would in fact act on certain muscles of the face, in particular the eyebrow corrugator musclesthe orientation of which might trigger natural anti-depressants.
The experiment is easy to carry out: just the fact of frown for a long time can cause the body to be overcome by sadness. On the contrary, by raising them, and therefore forcing oneself to smile (regularly), the Good mood is likely to return to the body.
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Botox and depression
According to one study by Professor Finzi published in the Journal of Pyschiatry Researchthe simple fact ofavoid frowning over a specific period might be enough to treat depression. For this, the American doctor was able to exploit the “powers” of botox for an anti-depressive but not aesthetic purpose.
His experiment consisted of injecting either botoxor a placebo between the eyes of a group of patients depressed to compare their effects on mood, botox freezing the corrugator muscles of the eyebrows. After regarding a month, the specialist noticed that more than half of the patients who had received an injection of botox were out of their depressioncompared to around 15% in the group that received a placebo.
Of course, the professor absolutely does not advise treating depression with botox, but ratherharness the power of the eyebrow muscles avoiding gathering them excessively. The smile would therefore be an unstoppable weapon to help get out of a depressive state, whether it is temporary or prolonged over time.
The power of laughter and smiles on health
Smiling is not just a weapon once morest depressionthe simple fact ofactivate your zygomatic muscles might be beneficial for general health. Thus, the action of laughing or smiling would have a relaxing effectwould reduce blood pressure, strengthen the immune system while fighting once morest certain heart diseases.
In China, Guangzhou hospital would have even integrated this smile therapy in its protocol to fight cancer. You know what you have left to do…
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