Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the function of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can help protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
Stanley Tan and Lee Berk of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine find that people who laugh are less likely to suffer from colds and flu because laughter stimulates the immune system. This link between joviality and health is so well established that many doctors use “humor therapy” as part of a comprehensive cancer treatment program. Humor is good activity for the healthy as well. Consider:
• Laughing is a tension-buster. A good chuckle reduces stress and aids relaxation.
• One hundred laughs gives the same amount of aerobic exercise as ten minutes on a rowing machine.
• Laughing involuntarily exercises your abdomen as well as fifteen facial muscles.
Dr. Fry’s research at Stanford University in the 1970's revealed that:
• A healthy guffaw stimulates lungs, circulation, and muscle tone.
• Protracted chuckling “massages right down to the toes and fingertips.”
• Laughter works out the shoulders, back, and diaphragm.
According to tests done by Swedish psychologist, Lars Ljungdahl, laughter is good for mental health as well:
• Laughter is effective at combating depression.
• Laughter creates a heightened sense of mental well-being.
• Laughter helps the mind to think creatively.
I suppose it is possible to take anything to an extreme. Consider the following. I am not making this up:
Tanganyika laughter epidemic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 was an outbreak of mass hysteria – or Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI) – rumored to have occurred in or near the village of Kashasha on the western coast of Lake Victoria in the modern nation of Tanzania (formerly Tanganyika) near the border of Kenya.[1]
The laughter epidemic began on January 30, 1962, at a mission-run boarding school for girls in Kashasha. The laughter started with three girls and spread haphazardly throughout the school, affecting 95 of the 159 pupils, aged 12–18.[2][3] Symptoms lasted from a few hours to 16 days in those affected. The teaching staff were not affected but reported that students were unable to concentrate on their lessons. The school was forced to close down on March 18, 1962.[4]
After the school was closed and the students were sent home, the epidemic spread to Nshamba, a village that was home to several of the girls.[4] In April and May, 217 people had laughing attacks in the village, most of them being school children and young adults. The Kashasha school was reopened on May 21, only to be closed again at the end of June. In June, the laughing epidemic spread to Ramashenye girls’ middle school, near Bukoba, affecting 48 girls. Another outbreak occurred in Kanyangereka and two nearby boys schools were closed.[2]
The school from which the epidemic sprang was sued; the children and parents transmitted it to the surrounding area. Other schools, Kashasha itself, and another village, comprising thousands of people, were all affected to some degree.[4] Six to eighteen months after it started, the phenomenon died off. The following symptoms were reported on an equally massive scale as the reports of the laughter itself: pain, fainting, respiratory problems, rashes, attacks of crying, random screaming.[5] In total 14 schools were shut down and 1000 people were affected. [6]
Take a moment and check out this video about the Tanganyika incident
Let me know if you are interested in attending a seminar to learn more.
Dr Steve
