RESEARCH SHOWS that laughter can stimulate healing from within. The Journal of the American Medical Association (2-14-2001) discusses research done at Unitika Central Hospital in Japan which found that skin welts shrank in allergy patients who watched Charlie Chaplin's comedic classic Modern Times, but not in patients who watched a video on weather.
Head researcher, Dr. Hajime Kimata said, "These results suggest that the induction of laughter may play some role in alleviating allergic diseases." Dr. Kimata was influenced by previous studies of Norman Cousins, whose 30-year-old research suggested that laughter and a positive attitude can help reduce pain.
Other health conditions which laughter has reportedly helped to alleviate are joint pains and recovery from heart attacks.
One study at Ohio State University suggested a link between happiness and the health of the heart. In this large-scale, 10-year study, clinically depressed men were found to be more than twice as likely to die of a heart attack as those who did not suffer from depression are.
Laughter is also said to be good for the immune system, both in accelerating immune response and preventing disease.
How does it work?
According to health writer Krista Conger, laughter, like drugs, tickles the brain's reward centre. She has documented research in which investigators traced the pleasurable aftermath of 'funniness' to a region of the brain involved in the response to methamphetamines and cocaine, as well as monetary gains and the site of attractive faces.
We now understand why humour feels so good to most people.
This understanding could lead to new diagnostic tests and therapies for a variety of psychiatric disorders, said Conger.
Dysfunction in this region of the brain has been implicated in some pathological disorders, as well as in depression, and other diseases including Parkinson's and fragile-X syndrome, a disorder often marked by symptoms similar to attention deficit disorder and autism.
As mentioned earlier, laughter reduces levels of certain stress hormones. Other researchers, in further explaining the impact of laughter, said that it provides a safety valve that shuts off the flow of stress hormones and the fight-or-flight compounds that swing into action in our bodies when we experience stress, anger or hostility.
These stress hormones, they say, suppress the immune system, increase the number of blood platelets (which can cause obstructions in arteries) and raise blood pressure.
When we're laughing, natural killer cells that destroy tumours and viruses increase, researchers say.
Now, that's nothing to laugh about.
Partial information source: www.people.howstuffworks.com
Laughing away our pain
Dr. Peter Weller, Contributor
ONE OF the important implications of research on the effects of laughter may have to be about how we perceive helping people who are sad, depressed or otherwise unhealthy.
People who try to counsel others often feel that they have to focus the person on their pain and its underlying causes, so that the person can understand and learn to cope.
They feel that they should not enable the person in their avoidance and denial.
But, it is also important to give that relief that comes from seeing the humorous side of things, and now the science is showing the importance of this.
Also, perhaps if we were all (especially men) not trying to look so serious and 'bad' and 'dread' and 'tough' we might smile, laugh more and be healthier.
Are we letting our children laugh and play enough helping them to develop healthy systems?
In the meantime, the challenge for those practising counselling and other therapeutic techniques will be balancing the work in both the 'pleasure' and 'pain' dimensions, so to speak.
As I have always said:
'Anybody can gouge a bullet out of someone's brain but only those who understand the complexity of the brain's functions have the knowledge and the tools and the training - can do so without causing further damage.'
A therapeutic tool
Drama has been used here in Jamaica as a therapeutic tool in psychiatric settings for some time, and this includes humour.
Cheering up someone can have beneficial effects and it doesn't necessarily take training in rocket science level psychology to do this... that's how we have always helped each other.
BUT, knowing how to use a technique in a strategic way to ensure the appropriate effect sometimes is more difficult.
In reference again to the potential of laughter to heal, I must say that in Jamaica we say 'tek bad tings mek joke' and this is how we take care of ourselves, but this can lead us into a state of 'denial' and then we never change the reality.
It must also be noted that Roots Theatre with its slapstick, laugh-out-loud humour may be so popular partly because of its healing/releasing effects... other more subtle humour may not have that effect.
Maybe we need more of this... but with healthier messages!
Funny facts
Did you know that laughing burns calories? Well, it does. In fact laughing for 10 minutes each day can burn the same amount of calories as a half-hour workout!Laughter can also make you more attractive to your friends, loved ones and the opposite sex.Laughter can be infectious. It can make others smile, and feel happier. The people who cheer us up and make us laugh are the people we are more likely to remember and want to be around.Laughter may lead to hiccuping and coughing, which clears the respiratory tract by dislodging mucous plugs. Laughter also increases the concentration of salivary immunoglobulin A, which defends against infectious organisms entering through the respiratory tract. Researchers estimate that laughing 100 times is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike. Laughing can be a total body workout. Blood pressure is lowered, and there is an increase in vascular blood flow and in oxygenation of the blood, which further assists healing.Laughter also gives your diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles a workout. That's why you often feel exhausted after a long bout of laughter you've just had an aerobic workout.People often store negative emotions, such as anger, sadness and fear, rather than expressing them. Laughter provides a way for these emotions to be harmlessly released. Laughter is cathartic. 
