O clap your hands all ye people �, clap your hands all ye people��... I was going through some health forums and blogs,scouting for health topic to blog about and i saw an interesting article about clapping as a form of exercise which i'm about to share. Now, this article is specially for those who feel reluctuant when asked to give a round of applause during any events or celebration ...you are actually doing a whole lot of good to your health...

We all think of clapping as a way to applaud somebody for a job well done in sports, award shows, theater or movies. However, there are a number of hidden benefits that clapping has been proven to have. In the recent years, there are different types of groups in parks who get together in the morning and/or evening. Some of these groups indulge in laughing, there is also another group who gather around to clap.

Our body is a bundle of nerves and blood vessels spread all through the body and is one of the most complex networks we will ever know. Each organ is linked to the other and a bad effect on one organ can put the other in danger. The palms, basically, contain nerve and blood vessel endings and stimulating them through clapping helps improve the health of organs like kidney, digestive tract, and lower back. Sounds surprising?

Well, there are about 30+ acupressure points in the palms, which are activated when you are clapping. These connect various organs including low back, neck, kidneys, lungs, stomach, etc. and have indirect benefits as noted below.

1. Clapping improves the overall heart health and maintains the blood pressure level. Blood circulation to various organs is also improved by regular clapping. Clapping also helps improve asthma-related problems by promoting the function of nerve endings that connect these organs.

2. Reduced occurrence of infections. Clapping helps immunity by boosting white cells, which are essential for fighting germs and therefore reduces the occurrence of frequent infections.

3. Regular clapping is also shown to have benefits on improved bone health in cases of arthritis and associated pains for the back. Be it middle or low back pains, there is an immense benefit from clapping. The severity of the pain can be reduced significantly.


4. Strange as it may seem, clapping is also shown to reduce instances of insomnia and improve hair health.

5. For mental illnesses like depression and anxiety, clapping can be very easy to do exercise that costs actually nothing. If you think the kidneys and palms are very distant from each other, think again.

6. For gout, which affects the kidneys, clapping is shown to be immensely useful. Both the severity of gout and the progression of the disease can be halted.

A word of caution: For better results, clapping is to be done after applying an oil like mustard oil or coconut oil. So next time, your clapping shouldn't be a part of just applauding. Include it in your routine exercise and see the results ...

Scientific Basis for the Benefits of Hand Clapping.

There have been very few scientific studies related to hand clapping. These benefits have been reported anecdotally for the most part. Only two rigorous studies have been conducted.

One of these is from the Ben-Grunion University of the Negev in Israel. The possible link between hand clapping and the development of essential skills in children was investigated. Children in first, second, and third grades in several elementary schools engaged in songs involving hand clapping. One result was that children who participated in this type of singing developed skills that children who didn’t participate did not develop. Another result showed that children who spontaneously engaged in hand clapping during recess had neater handwriting, wrote better, and had fewer spelling errors.

Because this kind of exercise seems to train the brain and influence development, those children didn’t get the hand clapping exercises were possibly at greater risk of developing learning difficulties. Teachers also reported those children who participated to be better socialized overall.

The children appeared to benefit from the hand clapping and singing primarily in three grades. The ages for these grades were roughly seven to ten. This appears to indicate a developmental process is occurring during these years that has effects on emotional, sociological, physiological, and cognitive development.

There also appeared to be a benefit for adults in this study. The researcher engaged university students in the same kind of hand clapping exercise. These students reported being more focused and less tense after the exercise.

Another study involving functional MRI imaging investigated cortical activation and hand clapping. Results of this study showed clapping to bring on more cortical activation in the primary sensorimotor cortex and the supplementary motor cortex than grasp-release movements and sequential finger opposition. These results indicate hand clapping to be an effective mechanism for stimulating the brain.


Benefits of Hand Clapping in Children...

Hand clapping has benefits in adult brains and in children’s development. This latter may be one of the more prominent areas of benefit.

Motor planning is one of the skills children must learn in order to successfully accomplish everyday tasks such as getting dressed, engaging in games with others, and writing. In motor planning, a child has to come up with a task, figure out how to complete it, and then do the physical actions to accomplish the task. Games that involve hand clapping also use motor planning. Motor movements involved in clapping must be practiced over and over in order for them to become automatic.

Clapping games help children practice crossing the midline of their bodies. This is an imaginary line that bisects the body. Crossing it is important in the development of handedness and brain connectedness.

Learning to place things in sequence is an important developmental task for children, also. This helps them in learning other skills, especially in academics. Clapping games help children learn to sequence in a playful atmosphere. Many of the clapping games require children to tell a story in sequence as they clap.

The coordination of the two sides of our bodies is a fundamental skill needed in many aspects of daily living and learning. Opening a bottle, putting on earrings, driving a manual car, and tying shoes require coordination of both sides of the body. Clapping games are very good at helping children learn this necessary skill. They require the use of both sides of the body over and over.

Clapping games also help children learn visual tracking. This is the ability to use the eyes to follow objects without moving the entire head to do so. This skill is necessary for good reading skills to develop.

Developing rhythm and beat skills are necessary for children to later learn how to dance, improve coordination, learn some gross motor games, and play an instrument. Clapping games are an excellent way to learn rhythm and beat.

Improved socialization is another benefit from clapping games. Many of these games involve more than one child, making the opportunities for socialization great. Often, one of the children involved in the games will be a bit more advanced than the other. This allows those who are slower to learn from the more advanced one. This also allows for peer coaching, which can be a wonderful tool for children who have difficulties. And the clapping games don’t appear to be “learning” in the strictest sense of the word; they are, rather, play time.

These clapping games can give children a developmental edge that helps them avoid childhood stressors and sets them up for a bright future.

Conclusion:Overall, clapping appears to work like acupressure or acupuncture. It seems to help the energy move through the body and helps the brain make new connections. It improves focus, reduces tension, and may have an effect similar to that which reduces pain in cancer patients. It also has many developmental benefits for children. It’s an easy and fun way to take care of your brain.

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