Laughter Can Be the Best Medicine

What do you call a cow with a twitch? Beef Jerky! If you didn't at least crack a smile at that, you might need to get your funny bone checked. In a world of sour faces, scrunched up noses, and furrowed brows, if a smile is a wonderful sight, laughter is the best sound to hear when you're feeling under the weather. If the cold has put a frown on your face or a lack of sunshine this winter has affected your mood temporarily, try putting a little humor into your everyday life and even one good laugh is guaranteed to make you feel better. While naturalists have been saying "laughter is the best medicine" for years, humor therapy actually is a holistic approach to healing through sensory stimulation.



According to the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH), founded in 1987, "therapeutic humor" is defined as, "Any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life's situations." AATH applies this definition in order to bring awareness to humor in the workplace, replacing otherwise uptight seminars and boring lectures with informative and entertaining conferences, pamphlets, and a way of networking between corporate settings, schools, and other business approaches. By incorporating laughter as well as humor in an otherwise unfunny environment such as the office or classroom, the positive benefits that come from laughing should be able to be enjoyed by everyone. Another reason company-wide retreats, school trips and general relaxation days are needed to keep the peace and the production going strong within large groups.



Humor therapy is a branch of Psychoneuroimmunology or PNI, which is a specialized form of research using the recently discovered (1972) neuropeptides within the body called "molecules of emotion." By studying the relationship the brain has with the immune system through behavior, many different forms of therapy are able to help reduce pain involved with immune and infectious diseases, the most commonly known form being psychiatry.



There is a reason hospitals hire clowns, singers, and costumed entertainers for the children's ward, because laughter actually has the power to take pain away. By releasing endorphins into the brain, your body's natural crime fighters start immediately reducing your heart rate and blood pressure, reducing stress hormones, and boosting your immune system, producing not only a smile and some color to your face but also a general feeling of wellness.



A study done by Norman Cousins, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979, showed the benefits of this therapy. Norman Cousins had a rare disease that caused the tissue around his spine to disintegrate. After devising his own method of "humor therapy" he found that just 15 minutes of laughing could allow him two full hours of pain-free, uninterrupted sleep. Since then, more studies have shown the same, and because a hearty dose of laughter flexes the abdominal muscles, patients who are unable to practice regular cardio exercise are able to still activate those muscles and help their heart�as well their mood�in the process.



A recent addition to humor therapy is the serious practice of "Hasya Yoga" or Laughter Yoga, made popular in 1995 by a physician in India. Laughter yoga uses yogic poses and breathing but includes a continuous laugh track, not unlike those used in television shows. This type of yoga relies on the fact that the human body doesn't differentiate between fake or forced laughter and the genuine emotional laughter. Laughing for an hour with a bunch of people involved in playful poses done with childlike simplicity causes a chain reaction of contagious laughter�almost like a yawn�the participants are not able to control it. By translating this technique to a specific demographic, experts are hoping the psychological benefits will prove successful for current soldiers returning from war. Soon to be tested by a veteran hospital in Arizona, Dr. Andrew Weil�popular natural health doctor�is heading up the study with the idea of helping soldiers from the Iraqi war deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).



From laughter workshops in the workplace, fun and games as part of the learning experience, and using humorous yoga in order to save soldiers from stress disorders, we have a few more reasons to appreciate spontaneous every day chuckles whether it is from a silly joke forwarded by email or a pun used by your favorite barista.



From : http://www.healthnews.com/family-health/
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