Laughter and Healing
Does thinking, just thinking about a funny event make us feel better?
It does! A study at Loma Linda university confirmed.
Dr. Lee Berk, the team’s lead researcher divided 16 healthy volunteers in two groups. Experiment group was told that they would be watching a funny movie. The other group was not.
“Blood drawn from experimental subjects just before they watched the video had 27 percent more beta-endorphins (Beta-endorphis are associated with boosting the immune system, promoting feeling of well being and increased relaxation) and 87 percent more human growth hormone, compared to blood from the control group, which didn’t anticipate the watching of a humorous video,” explained Lee Berk.
In an earlier study conducted by Dr Berk, the experiment group watched a funny movie for an hour while control group did not. Experiment group showed increase in beta-endorphins and human growth hormone similar to study reported earlier while there was no change in the control group.
Not only did the experiment group benefit with these positive biochemical changes while watching the movie, they kept on having higher levels of beta-endorphins and human growth hormone for next 12 to 24 hours.
Laughter effects.
Mark twain said, “He who laughs, lasts”!
Physiological stress has been linked to many chronic conditions like depression, heart disease, asthma, auto-immune disease and some cancers too. Scientific research has shown that laughter reduces stress hormones which, in turn, strengthens the immune system and makes us less susceptible to all aforesaid conditions.
A study by Dr. Michael Miller at the University of Maryland Medical Center focused on laughter’s physical and physiological effects, and found that laughter produces results akin to exercise. The results indicated that laughter decreases blood pressure, increases muscle flexion, improves overall performance of the heart’s muscles and possibly keeps heart disease away.
Laughter helps cure
Norman Cousins, born June 24th, 1915, was a prominent political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate. In 1964, he was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS for short). AS severely affects spinal joints; ultimately fusing them together, resulting in a straight, immovable spine called bamboo spine. There was neither a cure for AS then nor is now and chances of recovery for patients are pretty slim: 1 in 500.
Faced with dire prospects of an incapacitating condition, Cousins thought hard about his role and options for treatment. He discovered that AS was depleting his body of Vitamin C and discussed with doctors to address this problem by injecting a large dose of Vitamin C.
While serving at the University of California; Cousins’ research suggested that biochemistry of human emotions was a key factor that fought against illnesses. So he used the same techniques to fight his own illness by training to laugh every day. After Cousins’ doctors told him that he had very little chance of survival, he developed a recovery program where laughter was the key ingredient.
Cousins arranged a projector and a good supply of funny films including many ‘candid camera’ episodes and prints of Marx brother’s movies.
He described this system as “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep”. When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wears off, he would switch on the projector again and it would lead to another pain-free interval.
He was practicing his recovery program until his death in 1990 and lived for 26 years after being diagnosed with AS.
Researches
It has been long known that laughter is helpful to those going through stressful times but now researchers say that laughter can bring balance to all components of immune system – and help us fight all kind of diseases. Laughter reduces the level of certain stress hormones and in doing so, helps immune system protect our bodies better as stress hormones affect immune system negatively.
A good laugh increases natural killer (NK) cells (NK cells play a major role in fight against tumors and virus infected cells), Gamma-interferon also known as Type-II interferon or immune interferon (a disease fighting protein), T-cells (major part of immune system) and B-cells (Antibodies producing cells) in our body.
There have been many experiments and incidents where diabetic patients reported lower blood sugar levels after being to a comedy show. Researchers also say that laughter improves digestion, speeds up respiration and blood circulation.
As it is proven that laughter heals conditions such as sadness and depression, many psychologists have started incorporating laughter in their counseling sessions. Laughter is also known to release unexpressed, pent-up emotions of sadness, fear and anger harmlessly and thus helps to unload all unwanted mental-emotional baggage.
Good For Goodman
Cathy Goodman, when diagnosed with breast cancer; used her belief system and laughter to cure herself instead of following the conventional route of chemotherapy or surgery. As she states in the movie The Secret, Cathy did regular verbal affirmations and laughed a lot. She would chant ‘Thanks you for my healing’ the whole day. She believed, really believed, deep down in her heart that she was already healed. Cathy and her husband Morris watched funny movies to laugh away all stress.
Within three months, doctors confirmed that all signs of cancer had disappeared. With verbal affirmations, Cathy was able to make her mind accept that she was totally healed. Laughter helped keep her stress level down and her immune system was able to destroy cancer completely in 3 short months.
Laughter Yoga
“Funny is an attitude,” observed comic Flip Wilson.
In 1995, Dr. Madan Kataria, an Indian physician, developed a unique concept called laughter yoga. Having started with only five participants back in 1995, laughter yoga clubs are now a global movement with 6000 clubs in over 50 countries around the world.
Participants gather and start laughing for no reason. It starts as a little smile at first and soon they are giggling. Before they know, they are laughing out loud, a belly rippling laugh. This is simply how it is performed!
Laughter yoga is based on the fact that body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. You may have a real roaring laugh or one at the laughter club, the body will not know the difference.
Some time ago, laughter yoga introduced a concept ’365 Days – Laughter Yoga On Phone!!!’ where you can dial in to a conference laughter yoga call.
As of now, this is available in USA only but is catching fast and should be available in many countries soon. They have 12 sessions lasting 20 minutes every day. It is free and easy to join a call. To see call times and phone numbers, click laugh yoga on phone.
Humor as Medicine
Use of humor as medicine is an old, established concept.
In 14th Century, French physician Henri de Mondeville used humor as an effective aid in recovery from surgery. He wrote, “Let the surgeon take care to regulate the whole regimen of the patient’s life for joy and happiness, allowing his relatives and special friends to cheer him, and by having someone tell him jokes.”
In 1930s, U.S. children hospitals brought in clowns to cheer Polio affected children and in 1972, Dr Hunter “Patch” Adams, M.D. (of movie Patch Adams fame) founded Gesundheit Institute as a hospital based on fun and friendship.
About his vision for hospital, Dr Adams says “One of the most radical parts of the vision was that we wanted all of the activity to be infused with fun. I wanted to build the first silly hospital in history. Foolishness was embraced, often to extreme, in even the most profound of situations. We had fun deaths and bizarre, outlandish behaviors with the mentally ill. In our normal, serious world with somber medical environments (even though no research supports being serious and thousands of research papers encourage joy and humor as healing), we saw no contradiction in feeling that a hospital could also be an amusement park, even implying it is important for staff and patient.”
Whether you need humor as medicine or not, a good laugh is always welcome. So, go ahead! Have a good hearty laugh right now or just think about it and still have all the benefits. Watch funny videos to help you laugh. Read good jokes online or better still, join a laughter club near you. If there is not one, you can start one and help yourself and others.
References:
http://www.livescience.com/health/060331_laughter_good.html
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/02/02-27-07tdc/02-27-07dscihealth-08.asp
http://thehealingpoweroflaughter.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-marx-brothers-brought-norman.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosing_spondylitis
http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-nature/emotions/other/laughter.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferon-gamma
http://www.laughteryoga.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=675:365-days-laughter-yoga-on-phone&catid=252:new-trends-in-ly&Itemid=283
http://www.patchadams.org/hospital-paper
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/AnxietyStress/6926
That was intriguing. This one had me laughing for awhile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0svVWfFbo