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When you experience a good laugh your brain secretes
endorphins and the movement of laughter within your body actually
exercises many muscles of the body. Endorphins
are the
"feel-good" brain chemicals which raise both your mood and your
ability to cope. Laughter research has shown that
humor helps to keep your body strong and disease resistant.
There are two kinds of stress, good stress and bad stress.
Laughter is a form of good stress, or stress in reverse. Bad stress
suppresses the immune system.
At California's
Loma Linda University Medical Center, Lee Berk, assistant research
professor, and Stanley Tan, Endocrinologist have been studying the
effects of laughter on body. . Drs. Tan and Berk wanted to determine
if a form of good stress, or laughter, would improve the immune
system.
They discovered that after
their research subjects faced a solid
hour of induced joy and laughter from videos and comedians, the
subjects showed an increase in the good hormones --such as
endorphins and neurotransmitters --and decreased levels of the
stress hormones -- cortisol and adrenaline.
Laughter is one of the body's safety valves, a counter balance to
tension. When we release that tension, the elevated levels of the
body's stress hormones drop back to normal, thereby allowing our
immune systems to work more effectively.
Drs. Gael
Crystal and Patrick Flanagan,
are world recognized researchers, medical doctors, scientists and
metaphysicians who have received a Nobel Prize nomination. The
doctors Flanagan teach us they discovered laughter is a form of
internal jogging that exercises the body and stimulates the release
of beneficial brain neurotransmitters and hormones. Positive outlook
and laughter are actually good for our health!
Based on his personal experience of illness, Norman Cousins wrote
the book, “The Anatomy of an Illness". He explains "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 wore off, he
would switch on the motion picture projector again and not
infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."
At age 11, Norman Cousins was misdiagnosed with
tuberculosis
and placed in a
sanatorium.
As an
adult he was diagnosed with heart disease, suffered a heart attack
and during the 1960’s he was told he had a minimal chance of
surviving a mysterious life threatening illness.
Cousins suffered from a degenerative disease that caused
the breakdown of his collagen, the fibrous tissue that binds
together the body’s cells. He was almost paralyzed, given only a
few months to live, when he checked himself out of the hospital. He
moved into a hotel room, began taking mega doses of vitamin C,
ordered a movie projector, all the movies which he knew would make
him laugh and maintained a positive attitude. His struggle with
this illness and the regimen he created to cure himself is detailed
in the book and movie, "Anatomy of an Illness".
Norman Cousins is known for his unconventional method of healing and
his recipe for good health? Throughout his life and his active and
prominent career he was challenged by a variety of extremely serious
health problems. His recipe for good health was laughter mega doses
of vitamin C and a positive attitude. His unconventional approach to
disease, and his research into the mind-body relationship at UCLA
Medical School earned him the only MD degree ever awarded to a
layman at Yale University.
Despite the extremely serious illnesses which plagued him, Cousins
(June 24, 1915 through November 30, 1990) led an extraordinary
life. He
was a prominent political
journalist,
author,
professor,
and
world peace
advocate.
He
received hundreds of awards including the Peace Medal from the
United Nations. Cousins received nearly fifty honorary doctorate
degrees and served as a diplomat during three presidential
administrations.
During a lifetime of multiple life threatening illnesses and in
addition to his work as journalist, author, professor, and world
peace advocate Cousins served as Adjunct Professor of Medical
Humanities for the School of Medicine at the
University of
California. Even though his health was in a delicate
condition he did research on the
biochemistry
of human emotions, which he believed was the key to the success in
fighting illness. He held this belief as he experienced
heart disease,
which he chose to treat by taking massive doses of
Vitamin C
and training himself to laugh. In 1980 he wrote an
autobiographical
memoir,
Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook and
through the years authored a series of non-fiction books about heath
and healing.
He died in 1990
10 years after his first heart attack, 16 years after his collagen
illness, and 26 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart
disease. His life bears witness to his belief in the body’s
ability to heal naturally and to the perseverance with which he led
his life. He did not give up! May we all benefit from the profound
example that his life well lived demonstrated for us.
Quote
"It's
never too late to start laughing!"
- Lynn Shaw
In our quest to find the things in life which will evoke laughter
within us it is essential we never laugh at another person or
at another person's expense. If we hurt another person
in the process of healing ourselves we will defeat
any benefit we might have realized for ourselves. For humor
and laughter to be truly effective in our lives we must come from a
place of compassion and empathy. When in doubt we can always
depend upon the Golden Rule to guide us. Healthy laughter comes from
a place of caring and kindness.
© by Nancy Wiggen |
