Laughter May Be the Best Medicine After All

If laughter is the best medicine, then you may no longer need to take a pill or have that heart catheterization if your sense of humor is healthy. Seriously. The University of Maryland Medical Center has proven through research that the blood vessels supplying the heart are positively affected by laughter as it protects the inner linings called the endothelium. Not only does the heart benefit, but so do many other systems thus creating a reduction in stress and pain. Did you know that laughter has innumerable benefits to your body? Some of these benefits include but not limited to:

• increased immunity
• improved digestion and absorption
• mood elevation
• decreased amount of stress hormones in the body
• increased relaxation

The immune system is therapeutically enhanced by laughter by increasing fighter T-cells to ward off infection as well as increasing other infection fighting antibodies. This helps the body recover from illness faster as a result.

Got a cold? - Watch an extra episode of your favorite sitcom or read the Sunday funnies along with that chicken soup. Not only does laughter aid the body with it’s digestion problems, but laughing heartily and often can also increase caloric burn, increase pulse and respiration, and work various muscles in the body providing a good workout. An exercised body is a healthier, happier body too.

For a good description of the physiology of laughter, click here.

Laughter is most notable for improving the mood. It decreases the release of the stress hormones epinephrine, cortisol, dopac and growth hormone while increasing the release of endorphins into the bloodstream. Laughter increases brain functioning and promotes relaxation as well. The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH)is a group of professionals who provide evidence based information on current research and applications of humor as it applies to healing. Their official definition of therapeutic humor is, "Any intervention that provides health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situation.

This intervention may enhance health or be used as a complementary treatment of illness to facilitate healing or coping whether physical, emotional, cognitive, social or spiritual." To learn more about this organization and what they are doing to further incorporate laughter and humor into the healing arts, visit www.aath.org. Pain control and healing as well as disease prevention can merely be a state of mind in some cases. If you can laugh it off, why not try?

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