Is Laughter really the best medicine?

[LVT]

I know it is hard to do sometimes, but it is healthy. Please read this article.

Why a belly laugh is good for the heart

By Robin Yapp, Daily Mail
8 March 2005

With all those rules about diet and exercise, the quest for a healthy heart is not always associated with fun.

But the latest prescription may be a little more appealing ... just have a good laugh.

Fifteen minutes of laughter a day, say researchers, works wonders for your circulation, widening the blood vessels, increasing blood flow and helping reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.


The old saying that laughter is the best medicine was proved by scientists who studied the physiological effects of watching different types of movie.

more...
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/londoncuts/articles/17113977

[MsConduct]

1. Laughter is free, you don't need a prescription , it's something

that can be shared with anyone and it can be done anywhere, anytime. I know it's kept me (mostly) sane throughout my life! Thanks for the link.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. As long as the death penalty is in force, laughter is the best medicine.

[Heddi]

3. When I was about 15 or so, I had a HORRIBLE flu

and sinusitis And an ear infection...talk about Misery!

I had been on Rx's for about two weeks...wasn't getting any better.

My mom and I were in the living room...me laying miserably on the couch...watching TV.

You know that movie with Chevy Chase where he and his wife move to the country so he can write a book---well that was on TV...I'm half in and half out of a medicine daze...and the part in the movie where they buy the golden retriever that jumps out the car and just goes running away---that part came on, and I laughed and laughed so hard I couldn't breathe hardly. It just hit me as SO FUCKING FUNNY.

After that went off, we watched some SCTV and I just laughed and laughed. I think it was partially because I was going insane with fever, and partially because I was OD'ing on codine-based-medicine. But my god I've never laughed so hard.

Next day, my fever broke, sinuses cleared, and ear infection went away.

I'm a firm believer that laugher IS good medicine.

Right now I"m a nursing student and I have to do X clinical hours working in a hospital throughout school. I've found that people LOVE to laugh. I ALWAYS try to break the ice with patients with some humour. People LOVE it. I guess if you're cooped up in a hospital bed with a chronic cougher in the room next to you, and you have to go poop in a diaper, and have 10,000 hoses coming out of every orifice, you probably don't find too many things funny. So I try to come in and just get them to laugh a little bit. THat generally puts them in a better mood, helps them respond to me better, and I don't know---It has to be good for the soul

I've also found that patients that have non-productive coughs (meaning they don't bring up phlegm when they cough) get productive if I have them laugh a bit. I think the laughter PLUS the jostling motion associated with laughter helps break up the mucous

:)

[roguevalley]

4. I can't remember which famous writer finding out he had cancer

took home all the funny videos he could find and laughed himself well. Its been documented. It helps the body heal and fights cancer to laugh and be happy.

[Karenina]

8. Norman Cousins

http://www.dailycelebrations.com/072799.htm

"Over 25 years ago, Dr. Norman Cousins in his book Anatomy of an Illness described how watching Marx Brother movies helped him recover from a life-threatening tissue disease.

"Is it possible," he wondered, "that love, hope, faith, laughter, confidence, and the will to live have therapeutic value?" Cousins made it a point to enjoy a hearty belly laugh several times a day. A few minutes of laughter gave him an hour or more of pain-free sleep."

[applegrove]

5. Very true. Even in the hardest times and the most painful things that

can happen to a human being.. if you can laugh... you can survive emotionally. To laugh at yourself & your situation is the most important thing of all.

[Shadowen]

6. Hell no.

I got a chest cold. Last night, my sisters and I went to dinner. We had a hell of a time, but because the laughter irritated my lungs, I could not...stop...coughing.

[Stirk]

7. Medicine is the best medicine, but laughter doesn't hurt I suppose.

:)