Laugh your way to health

With all the mess amid us, to talk about laughter is probably off-tangent or is it? I just attended a general meeting of advertisers and industry veteran Jos Ortega was talking about how effective humor can be in promoting goods and services to Filipinos. He correctly observed that laughter is a favorite coping mechanism in this country. Surprisingly, even the June issue of Reader’s Digest had great news about how laughter could heal. My curiosity piqued, I researched and found an interesting doctor who uses laughter therapy.

"Laughter is a dynamic new therapy that will transform your life. It will heal diseases within your physical body and bring about many psychological changes that offer fresh and new perspective on how you live your life," Dr. Madan promises.

His extensive research on the subject of laughter reveals that it can strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, reduce stress, relieve depression and sadness, and relieve pain. Dr. Madan adds that laughter can empower you and open your creativity.

He explains, "(It will) teach you to take yourself less seriously, be more playful and relaxed in your daily life, release sadness, anxiety and stress, bring you in touch with your inner joy and well-being, and help you live more consciously. Laugher is a new science in the field of transformation and healing. If you want to lighten up and become more aware and joyful, go ahead and laugh now!"

The Comic Doctor Is In

Dr. Madan Kataria was born on Dec. 31, 1955 in India, where he practiced medicine for 15 years. Known as the guru of giggling, he started laughter clubs all over the world anchored on a new technique of laughter therapy based on yoga. There are more than 800 laughter clubs in India, USA, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Dubai. Time, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, BBC, CNN, and many other major media around the world have featured his passion for laughter. He has two published books: Laugh For No Reason and Self-Medication: How Useful, How Harmful?

Although this doesn’t seem to be the case in the Philippines (where the happiness quotient is apparently high), in other countries, scientists observe that people are laughing less compared to 30 years ago. A study done by a German psychologist Dr. Michael Titze reveals that in the 1950s, people used to laugh 18 minutes a day, compared to six minutes maximum today despite the huge rise in the standard of living. It further observes that compared to children who laugh up to 300 to 400 times in a day, adults laugh only 15 times a day.

Sadly not everyone has a sense of humor. Not everyone can tell a joke or understand jokes fully. Majority cannot laugh because they don’t have a sense of humor. This is where Dr. Madan comes to the rescue with an exercise to stimulate laughter.

Rx: Laugh Without A Reason

Dr. Madan developed a new technique to make people laugh: free group laughter based on yoga (Hasya Yoga). Sans jokes, anyone can participate in group laughter every day for 15-20 minutes. Deep breathing precedes each session, together with a ho-ho, ha-ha exercise, followed by a variety of stimulated laughter techniques like hearty laughter, silent laughter, medium laughter, lion laughter, swinging laughter, one meter laughter, cocktail laughter, gradient laughter, among many others.

Yes, this is a training for people to laugh without a reason. Dr. Madan’s logic is simple: "Self-induced, stimulated laughter can easily be converted into real laughter when you do it in a group. Laughter is infectious, laughter is contagious and it spreads when you laugh in company and have good eye contact. We have all laughed without a reason when we were children. Children can laugh for no reason because they have very few inhibitions. The very essence of laughing without a reason lies in developing your child-like spirit and playful attitude. If you can do that, laughter will come to you with great ease."

At the various laughter clubs, "inhibitions are broken and a sense of humor flows."

Dr. Madan points out, "A sense of humor is the capacity of an individual to perceive, relate, and experience a given situation in a more funny and humorous way. A sense of humor is nothing that one is born with, but it is a skill that can be acquired with practice. One thing that God has given everyone of us is a tremendous potential to laugh.

As you can see, a child can laugh up to 300-400 times a day. The child does not laugh because it has a sense of humor, but because it is in the nature of the child to be joyful. As the child starts growing, he is exposed to more and more information and his laughter starts getting lost under layers of seriousness, self-control, responsibility, fear, and insecurity. As a result, an ordinary situation at which the child used to be amazed and amused, does not trigger any good feeling any more."

These layers of inhibition and the mental blocks created by oneself, one’s parents, and society are peeled to develop one’s sense of humor. "Teaching a person who has a lot of inhibitions to develop a sense of humor is like flushing a drain which is blocked with rubble. Once you remove the blockade, water will start flowing. This is exactly what has happened in laughter clubs. It is for this reason that we are successful in making thousands of people laugh in a countries like India, where people hardly ever laugh or smile. The same people who never used to smile have started cracking jokes and enjoying jokes in a better way than ever before. They have started being playful and creative. Here, nobody was first trained to have a sense of humor and then laughed. We all laughed and laughed for no reason and without applying much logic. Therefore, it is not always the sense of humor that leads to laughter, but laughter can also help you to develop a sense of humor. Humor and laughter make one unity, each flows into the other," he adds.

Go Ahead And Fake It

The whole idea is for serious stiffs to fake it until they are laughing every day. According to Dr. Madan, there is sufficient research data that your body produces happy chemicals even if you are just pretending to laugh or acting happy. Apparently, our bodies do not know the difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. They say many actors worldwide have experienced the effect of faking emotions. They feel sick after acting sadness. The idea of the laughter club is based on acting happiness. "Motion creates emotions. If you put your body into an act of happiness, your mind will follow," asserts Dr. Madan.

He adds, "Laughter yoga activates laugh muscles (but) yogic laughter exercise is not a substitute for the spontaneous laughter which we get throughout the day. As a matter of fact, it helps to increase our capacity to laugh during the day. According to another research study, if you stretch your laugh muscles on a regular basis it will make them respond more spontaneously whenever there is something amusing. Group laughter exercises help members reduce their inhibitions which enables them to laugh more often."

Why yogic laughter? A session is a blend of yogic deep breathing, stretching, stimulated laughter exercises, and cultivating child-like playfulness. The whole concept of group laughter exercises is based on yoga, which produces a unique physiological balance in our bodies by connecting body, mind, and spirit.

"Stimulated laughter exercises are combined with deep breathing that stimulates the calming branch of our nervous system (parasympathetic system) through rhythmic movement of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Deep breathing helps to increase the net supply of oxygen, which is the most important component of our metabolism. According to principles of yoga, laughter gives a constant massage to the digestive tract and also improves blood supply to all the internal organs. Laughter stimulates blood circulation which helps to transport nutrients all over the body and it also strengthens our respiratory apparatus, which supplies oxygen to the body," Dr. Madan enthuses.

Health Links

Experts say that almost 80 percent of hospitalized diseases started from too much stress. Laughter is one of the most economical and easiest ways to combat stress. "Laughter is a good muscle relaxant. It expands the blood vessels and sends more blood to the extremities and other muscles all over the body. A good bout of laughter also reduces the levels of stress hormones epinephrine and cortisol," Dr. Madan explains.

Psychoneuroimmunologists have warned that all negative emotions, like anxiety, depression or anger, weaken the immune system of the body. That means reducing its fighting capacity against infections. Dr. Lee S. Berk of the University of California reports that laughter helps to increase the count of natural killer cells and antibody levels. Researchers have likewise found that after laughter therapy, there is an increase in antibodies (immunoglobulin A) in the mucous of the nose and respiratory passages. Many members of laughter clubs have noticed that the frequency of common colds, sore throats, and chest infections has decreased.

Dr. William Fry of Stanford University equated one minute of laughter to 10 minutes on the rowing machine. One inhales more oxygen while laughing and the heart and blood circulation gets stimulated like in any standard aerobic exercise. That is why laughter exercise in Dr. Madan’s opinion is best for those confined in sick beds or wheelchairs.

Experiments have also proven the benefit of laughter in lowering blood pressure. There is a drop of 10-20 mm. pressure after participating for 10 minutes in a laughter session. "It does not mean that those who are taking two to three tablets for blood pressure every day will be completely cured. Maybe, you will require two tablets if you are taking three, or borderline high blood pressure patients may not require any medication after some time. It takes years to develop high blood pressure. It cannot be reversed in a few days or a month. But definitely, laughter will exercise some control and arrest further progress of the disease," Dr. Madan clarifies.

Laughter also alleviates pain. It increases the body’s level of endorphins (natural pain-killers). Endorphins released as a result of laughter may help in reducing the intensity of pain in those suffering from arthritis, muscular spasms and migraine headaches.

"Laughter is (also) an excellent exercise for your facial muscles. It tones up the muscles of the face and improves facial expressions. When you laugh, your face becomes red due to an increase in blood supply, which nourishes the facial skin and makes it glow. Laughing people look more cheerful and attractive. By squeezing the tear glands through laughter, it moistens the eyes, adding a little sparkle to them," assures Dr. Madan.

Heart Happy

Laughter and an active sense of humor may even help protect against a heart attack, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. The study, first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

"The old saying that ‘laughter is the best medicine,’ definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart," claims Dr. Michael Miller, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. "We don’t know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol buildup in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack."

"We know that exercising, not smoking and eating foods low in saturated fat will reduce the risk of heart disease. Perhaps regular, hearty laughter should be added to the list. The recommendation for a healthy heart may one day be exercise, eat right, and laugh a few times a day," Dr. Miller prescribes.

Researchers found that watching a funny movie had a healthy effect on blood vessel function, allowing them to expand and contract more effectively in response to changes in blood flow. But watching a mentally stressful movie, like a war drama, may have the opposite effect, causing the lining of the blood vessels, known as the endothelium, to narrow and restrict blood flow.

Laugh Your Worries Away

Can you really make yourself laugh when you are angry or tense? Can you improve your humor and increase laughter in your life? Judy Goldblum-Carlton, a humor therapist at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children’s Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, offers creative ways to do just that:

• Find out what tickles your funny bone. You have to figure out what makes you laugh. Some people like slapstick while others prefer a more intellectual type of humor.

• Rent a funny movie. Or watch a comedy show on TV.

• Add comedy to your commute. Listen to a funny audiotape when driving to relieve road stress and, if possible, turn the cell phone off when you’re in the car. The car is a great place to listen to funny stuff because that’s where a lot of your tension is.

• Start a humor library. Clip funny cartoons; collect calendars, mugs, pictures, funny greeting cards, books, or anything else that makes you laugh. Post those cartoons and calendars on your wall, so you can look at them often for a good laugh.

• Laugh with others. People laugh much more often when in groups. So watch a funny movie with some friends and share the laughter.

• Find humor in seemingly ordinary, every day things. Anything – from funny road signs to a dog crossing the street – can inspire a laugh.

• Remember a funny moment. Start thinking about something funny that happened when you’re feeling tense. This will ease the tension and help you forget your troubles, at least temporarily.

• Laugh at yourself. Tell a funny or embarrassing story about yourself.

• Make fun of your fears. When you make fun of what frightens you, you get a mastery over it and gain control.

• Act silly. Let yourself act silly and share it. Get a pair of silly head glasses and put them on. Laughter is contagious. When you’re happy and you’re laughing, it rubs off on people.

• Learn to play. Play with your kids or your pets. Teach the pet some silly tricks. Games can also be funny and can bring a laugh.

• Visit the zoo and watch the animals, especially the monkeys. The number one thing that makes people laugh is the monkey. Monkeys are a riot to watch.

• Lighten up! You take your life’s work seriously, but take yourself a little more lightly. When you throw your head back and laugh, you’re not thinking of anything else. Laughter is the best thing you can do for your health.

So go ahead. Don’t be afraid to laugh your heart out. It’s definitely good for you!

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You can reach me at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph.