for your
health
Peals that heal
Laughter as medicine
By Star Lawrence
COULD YOU SING “Happy Birthday”
using only the syllable “ha,” without breaking into giggles? You’re getting the idea of
laughter therapy.
In 1979, magazine editor Norman
Cousins wrote Anatomy of an Illness, in which
he described being diagnosed with a degenerative disease. He checked into a hotel room
and put himself on a regimen of vitamins and
funny books and movies. His symptoms dissipated. (Doctors would recommend some
traditional medical care, too.)
About 10 years later, Karyn Buxman,
president of the Association for Applied and
Therapeutic Humor (
www.aath.org) and
publisher of the Journal of Nursing Jocularity
(
www.journalofnursingjocularity.com), and a
colleague, Steve Wilson, who now runs the
World Laughter Tour (www.worldlaughter
tour.com), chipped in to bring an Indian doctor named Medan Kataria to America to train
laughter leaders.
Now, various forms of laughter medicine
are practiced in retirement homes, clubs,
therapists’ offices, yoga ashrams and even
prestigious hospitals across the country.
Laughing and humor are separate. Actually,
only 10 to 20 percent of laughter is in response
to humor—the rest is to show that one is
approachable and nonthreatening. That is why
laughter therapy is often done in groups.
It feels good to laugh. It ought to. Studies
have shown that laughter, even fake laughter,
releases endorphins, boosts the immune system, relaxes muscles throughout the body,
decreases stress chemicals such as cortisol,
helps people forget pains and is equivalent to
“internal jogging” when it comes to cardio.
“Laughter is a great stress fighter,” agrees
Katherine Puckett, national director of
mind-body medicine at the Cancer
Treatment Centers of America (
www.cancer
center.com/complementary-alternative-med
icine/ laughter-therapy.cfm), which has
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Become a certified laughter yoga
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PHOTODISC
offered a Laughter Club a few times a month
since 2004, when a patient suggested that
cancer was short on laughs.
So what do people in a Laughter Club do,
you might ask. Therapists often seek neutral
ground, conducting laughter exercises.
One of these is the “greeting laugh.” You
face a person, make eye contact, then start
cranking out belly laughs. At first this may
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