Laugh Your Way to Good Health

When we were growing up, we raced for the monthly Reader’s Digest and turned immediately to the feature “Laughter is Your Best Medicine.” After chuckling through the stories, we’d spend the next few days writing our own, giggling our way through family dinners and story hours. Little did we know we were also injecting ourselves with a powerful and effective drug.

Laughter, says emerging evidence, is indeed good medicine.A laugh relaxes your body and stimulates endorphins, promoting a feeling of well-be

ing that helps us look at stressful or unhappy situations in a new light.

One National Institutes of Health study showed that laughter stimulates the brain to counteract depressive symptoms. “Laughter therapy” decreases chronic pain and symptoms of depression and improves quality of life and resilience in cancer survivors.

Scattering Joy, Promoting Health

Remedy Chick Linda White spent one morning “scattering joy” while riding her bike to work. She said good morning to everyone she passed, pigeons and ducks included. By the time she reached her office, she was laughing and filled with joy herself. It shed a whole new light on her day.

Smiling and spreading laughter and goodwill can reduce pain, buoy mood, decrease stress hormones, enhance immune function, and heighten alertness and creativity.

It can even improve some measures of heart function. Psychologist and laugh therapist Steve Wilson notes that laughter and exercise have similar effects. He recommends laughing and waving your arms as just one effective way to ramp up your heart rate. One study compared the benefits of one minute of laughter to ten minutes on the rowing machine.

Another study showed that diabetics actually saw their blood sugar levels rise less after eating a meal during a comedy show.

Apparently your body doesn’t know the difference between spontaneous mirth and simulated laughter. Either way, health benefits occur. So if you’re not feeling in a laughable mood, you can get there!

Try Linda’s “scattering joy” technique

Or skip up and down your driveway. Who cares who’s watching? If you can’t skip, try waltzing in your living room. If you’re in a wheelchair, turn a tight 360. If in bed, wave your arms. How does this bring on the laughter? Perhaps it takes us back to our childhood.

Or sit across from a friend and simply start to laugh. This was an assignment while I was studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. We felt silly and tentative at the start. Soon tears were running down our faces; after 10 minutes we felt relaxed, revived, and ready to take on the world.

As Mark Twain said, He who laughs, lasts.

Be well,

By Barbara Brownell-Grogan