Doug is a stand up comedian that attended the STAR 2000 retreat. He comments on, "Do they have HD or are they Red Necks". I didn't know about circular family trees. Doug is an awesome healing force. --Jerry 10-Jul-2000
by Janet R. Edwards; Arthritis Today September-October 1993
You awaken hours before the alarm clock sounds, your joints aflame with pain. You had taken your medication right on schedule, but your afternoon outdoor excursion had lasted longer than you'd originally planned, and now there's a price to pay. But this time, instead of heading for the medicine chest, you rise from your bed, into the den and shut the door.
After sliding in a videocassette of the Marx Brothers, you stretch out in your favorite easy chair and hit the remote control, hoping to coax your body into making its own pain-fighting chemicals before resorting to expensive, less effective substitutes.
Within moments, you start to smile at Harpo's silent, silly antics. Feeling more at ease, your mind becomes alert and focused, prompting you to go ahead and giggle at Groucho's wild one-liners. Pulse rate up and breathing harder, your whole body joins in the fun with a deep, hearty belly laugh that feels so good you just can't quit. Fifteen minutes go by, but you've scarcely noticed. Your joints still hurt, but for some reason, not nearly as much now. Totally relaxed and pleasantly drowsy, you can go back to bed and sleep soundly without further distraction.
Laughter can't always be the best medicine, but medical research suggests that its beneficial effects on mind and body are not easily dismissed, particularly when it comes to restoring health and fighting pain.
Human beings have known about the connection between good health and good humor for centuries. "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones," according to Proverbs 17:22, New International Version of the Bible. However, people began to sit up in their sickbeds and take serious note of this notion when the late Norman Cousins published Anatomy of an illness in 1979. Diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a normally irreversible, arthritis-related disease that attacks the body's connective tissues. Cousins augmented his doctor's prescribed medical regimen with megadoses of vitamin C, a positive attitude and self-designed humor therapy.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1976 (and in his book that followed) he reported, "Ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep."
Since that time, numerous scientific studies of laughter and its effects on the human body and brain have contributed to the development of gelotology, a relatively young science commonly known as humor physiology.
"Researchers have continued to examine the physical, emotional and psychological changes occurring during mirthful experiences," writes retired doctor William F, Fry Jr. of Stanford University Medical School in the April 1992 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "These include physiologic activities involving the muscular, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and central nervous systems. In most cases, mirthful responses are positive and beneficial."
Babies begin to laugh, as a motor reflex, usually by 4 months of age. This behavior requires the cooperative efforts of 15 facial muscles and works out not only the vocal cords, but also the entire skeletal muscle system.
Laughter makes your heart bear faster, your lungs breathe more deeply and your adrenal glands secrete larger amounts of catecholamines - substances that help transmit the nerve impulses chat control involuntary behavior. The precise effect of these chemicals is not fully understood, but some scientists believe they may enhance interpersonal responsiveness, alertness and memory during periods of stress.
Although a hearty laugh undeniably does the body good, many of the same physical, mental and spiritual benefits can be derived without side-splitting hysterics. "It is a serious error to suppose that laughter is the only emotional antidote to stress or illness," wrote Norman Cousins in a 1990 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. "Some people tend to be humor-resistant and derive benefit in other ways.
"An appreciation of life can be a prime tonic for mind and body," Cousins continued. "Being able to respond to the majesty of the way nature fashions its art. . . the joyous quality of a Chopin nocturne . . . the sound of delight in a young boy's voice on catching his first baseball; and most of all, the expression in the face of someone who loves you - all these are but a small part of a list of wondrous satisfactions that come with the gift of awareness and that nourish even as they heal."
That said, it's important to remember that a positive attitude and laughter should be viewed as complements to the narural healing process, not as cures by themselves. Seek out the best of every therapy and coping strategy available to you - the best doctors and health-care providers, the most helpful medications, the most prudent physical activities and the most beneficial behaviors and thinking patterns.
Scientists will continue to search for the exact relationship between humor and human health. But if laughter can help you and all around you feel better, why not give it a try?