Prescription for Laughter

Looking for a new medication with no known side effects? Laughter has all kinds of health benefits and it is free!

Sometimes nothing seems funny, but look again. Surely there is something funny or embarrassing or ironic that will bring a smile to your face if not an outright laugh. Try it. This could be a valuable tool for your health care.

For years we have heard that Laughter Is the Best Medicine, and it is. It doesn't take away a disability, but laughter significantly enhances your quality of life and may provide specific health benefits as well. Although not everyone agrees, the medical community has plenty of research that show laughter is good medicine.

Laughing reduces stress, enhances and strengthens your immune system, helps you cope better with pain and live longer. It sounds pretty good so far, but we're not finished yet. It lowers blood pressure and elevates your mood, releases tension, fosters relaxation and allows you to respond better to treatment and generally feel better.

This is all rather subjective, say the scientists among us. Maybe, but Dr. Lee Berk and Dr. Stanley Tan tell us there are biochemical effects as well. Laughter increases:

• activity of cells that kill viral and cancer infected cells
• lymphocytes (T cells), turning up the immune system "a notch"
• immunoglobulin (IgA) which fights upper respiratory problems
• immunoglobulin (IgB) and Complement 3 which pierce dysfunctional cells
• gamma interferon which turns on the immune system

Norman Cousins was perhaps the man who started this whole laughter thing in the first place. Few considered the therapeutic uses of humor before his case study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979. Now there is even a name for the study of psychological factors, the brain, and the immune system -- psychoneuroimmunology.

And there is more. Laughter is good for rest and recreation.

Cousins said 15 minutes of hardy laughter could be followed by two hours of pain free sleep -- not just sleep, but pain free sleep. Ah, rest.

Now, recreation. Humor is one of those things that bring people together. People tend to move toward laughter and connect with others. It promotes community. One good minute of raucous laughter equals about ten minutes of exercise.

Ha, ha, ha. Now you are rested, your brain function is working at top speed, your energy level is at its best, and you are having a good time. How do you keep it up? How can you keep laughter in your life?

Norman Cousins rented funny movies. There are many funny things on the Internet, including comics who find humor in a disabled world.

• LEEDER O. MEN has a group of comic strips starring Leeder in a chair.
  
• And then there are the Mothers from Hell, a group of parents whose kids have disabilities. This site has all kinds of information as well as humor.

There are many sites and blogs that pass along jokes and funny stories.

• Smile of the Day
• Humor Source
• Enhance your sense of humor
  
• Funny Stuff
  
• Rotar Jokes
  
• Beyond the Blackstump
  

There are so many more sites dedicated to helping us laugh, and sometimes it's just fun browsing and surfing through the web. At the very least, be prepared to laugh. Don't take things so seriously, count your blessings, and smile.

Still need convincing? For more information about humor therapy, read these articles:

• http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/07/health/webmd/main1481492.shtml
• http://www.holisticonline.com/Humor_Therapy/humor_therapy_benefits.htm
• http://www.holisticonline.com/Humor_Therapy/humor_therapy_introduction.htm
• http://www.helpguide.org/life/humor_laughter_health.htm
• http://www.rd.com/content/enhance-your-sense-of-humor/

                                 Enjoy!