It may sound far-fetched but doctors have discovered that laughter really can be the best medicine for a whole range of illnesses.
When we laugh, the muscles of the face crease and massage the underlying blood vessels that supply the brain, stimulating blood flow. This increases the amount of nutrients and oxygen the brain receives and this in turn alters your mood. In fact, doctors claim that 100 to 200 laughs a day is the equivalent to 10 minutes rowing or jogging in terms of its physical effects.
Psychologist Robert Holden, Britain’s first laughter therapist, who opened a ‘laughter clinic’ in Birmingham, says: ‘We all have the idea that happiness is something we’ll know when we bump into it. That doesn’t work. It’s a question of putting things into perspective and humour is an essential part of that. We now know that one minute’s chuckling is worth 40 minutes of deep relaxation.’
Holden has been very successful but the idea of using laughter as therapy first came to an American, journalist Norman Cousins. The latter developed a crippling form of arthritis and he devised his treatment regime himself. Frustrated at the lack of success of conventional treatment, he locked himself in a hotel room with a selection of Marx Brothers’ films and comic books. He observed that every time he laughed the pain diminished. Just 10 minutes of genuine laughter provided 40 minutes of pain relief. After several weeks of this self-imposed treatment, Cousins’ condition began to reverse and he eventually published an account of his experiment.
It is becoming well-established that depression saps our physical strength and renders us more susceptible not only to coughs, colds and minor infections, but also to more serious bodily breakdown. Recent research shows that sadness actually depresses the immune system, making the body less able to defend itself against disease.
Well, it’s about time laughter was taken…seriously! So why not donate a smile to a worthwhile cause? Too many people these days have lost the ability to see the funny side of life and cannot even remember the last time they smiled.
Don’t waste any time: laugh your way back to good health and vitality!
