dedicated to healing
at all levels and dimensions
Energy Detox: for improved health
Karen Shultz
wrote about the healing aspects of hearty, sincere laughter in the
anthology The Essence of Healing. She says that it allows us to
1. exercise the
muscles of the lungs, diaphragm, abdomen, chest and shoulders, stimulating
the circulatory system and exercising the breathing muscles;
2. increase the
oxygen in our blood;
3. become
profoundly self-relaxed—after laughing, the pulse rate, heartbeat and
blood pressure drop below normal and the skeletal muscles become deeply
relaxed, indicating reduced stress; and
4. control pain
by increasing production of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers.
But how much evidence is there for all this?
There is a
small – but growing – dossier of medical studies teasing out the benefits
of humor. Most people have heard how Norman Cousins, the long-time editor
of Saturday Review, used laughter to help himself recover from a
fatal disease. Norman Cousins was one of the first to discover the healing
power of humor. In August 1964, Cousins had become critically ill. He
could move only with great difficulty. He underwent extensive medical
tests. He reports there was: …a consensus that I was suffering from a
serious collagen illness—a disease of the connective tissue. . . .
Collagen is the fibrous substance that binds cells together. In a sense,
then, I was becoming unstuck. I had considerable difficulty in moving my
limbs and even in turning over in bed. Nodules appeared on my body,
gravel-like substances under the skin, indicating the systemic nature of
the disease. At the low point of my illness, my jaws were almost locked.
The pain in his
body was so severe he was not able to sleep. Specialists called in on his
case found that the connective tissue in his spine was disintegrating
also. Cousins asked his doctor about his chances for full recovery. "He
leveled with me, admitting that one of the specialists had told him I had
one chance in five hundred. The specialist had also stated that he had not
personally witnessed a recovery from this comprehensive condition." How
did Cousins react? He says, "All this gave me a great deal to think about.
Up to that time, I had been more or less disposed to let the doctors worry
about my condition. But now I felt a compulsion to get into the act. It
seemed clear to me that if I was to be that one in five hundred, I had
better be something more than a passive observer."
He started
asking questions. His search for information about how people recover from
terminal conditions led him to vitamins and the laughing cure. He decided
that the hospital was not a place for getting well. He checked out and
moved into a room. He borrowed videotapes of Candid Camera programs
and obtained old Charlie Chaplin films and Marx Brothers movies. He found
that ten minutes of belly laughter at frequent intervals enabled him to fall asleep and get the rest he needed. He
gradually recovered his health. In his book Anatomy of an Illness,
which created a worldwide sensation, Norman Cousins wrote about the value
of humor, about how laughter helped him overcome a life-threatening disease.
In
1990 researchers discovered that watching a video of Bill Cosby performing
his stand-up routine results in enhanced production of salivary
immunoglobulin A – a chemical that plays a key role in preventing upper
respiratory tract infection (apparently these beneficial effects were
significantly reduced when participants listened to Mel Brooks and Carl
Reiner's classic `2000-Year-Old-Man' routine).
You'd expect that this information
would have immediately spawned a whole raft of laughter therapies. No such
thing. Even though some hospitals have now set up 'humor rooms' and
mobile 'humor carts', they are merely for amusement, not cure. Part of the
problem is that, half a century after Cousins published his book, medics
claim there's not enough hard clinical data that laughter is more than a stressbuster or mood-enhancer.
(How much data do they want?) For most of us, there's plenty of hard proof
around. Recent
work has supported a link between laughter, coping with stress, and
psychological and physical wellbeing. According to this work, people who
spontaneously use humor to cope with stress have especially healthy immune
systems, are 40 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack and strokes,
experience less pain during dental surgery, and live 4.5 years longer than
most.
There's research showing that it can help to relieve pain (Psycho' Bull,
2001; 127: 504-19), and tantalizing evidence that it can help diabetics by
reducing blood sugar and preventing diabetes-related kidney disease (J Psychosom Res, 2007; 62: 703-6)—giving us glimpses of its potential. Among
the most provocative experimental findings are the following:
* The
experience of laughter is associated with a lowering of serum cortisol
level, an increase in activated T lymphocytes, an increased number and
activity of natural killer cells, and an increase in the number of T cells
having helper/suppressor receptors. These findings suggest that laughter
quiets the body’s stress response and enhances immune activity.
*· After
subjects viewed a humorous video or one involving trust, there was an
increase in salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA), which is believed to protect
against some viruses.
*· Laughter
appears to be a form of ‘internal jogging,’ as Norman Cousins put it.
Laughing initially causes an increase in the heart and respiratory rate,
raises blood pressure, increases oxygen consumption, gives the muscles of
the face and stomach a workout, and relaxes the muscles not involved in
laughing. Shortly following laughter, however, these cardiovascular
indices fall to levels below previous resting values.
*· When
researchers asked professional actors and scientists to mimic prototypical
emotional facial expressions and then to experience various emotions by
reliving a past experience, they found striking differences in heart rate,
hand temperature, skin resistance, and muscle tension. In contrast to the
changes seen with anger and fear, happiness was associated with much lower
rises in heart rate and hand temperature.
*· The
experience of positive emotions such as happiness during exercise appear
to produce beneficial cardiovascular effects.
*· Individuals
who said they turned to humor as a way of coping with difficult life
situations had the highest initial concentrations of salivary IgA,
suggesting that a consistently cheerful approach to life enhances one’s
immune capacity.
*· Tears in
response to laughter and pain have a different composition than do those
induced artificially by cutting onions.
* 'Emotional
teardrops' have a higher concentration of proteins and toxins, suggesting
that they may be helpful in ridding the body of injurious substances.
The start of this new
millennium provides a little more of the hard evidence demanded of “laughter as
good medicine”. In 2003 researchers at Indiana State University
(USA) found the most conclusive evidence yet of a link between laughter
and the body's ability to overcome disease. Laughing out loud can boost
the immune system by up to 40 per cent! In tests involving 33 women, one
group watched a comedy movie together while the others were shown a dull
tourism film. The scientists took samples of the women's immune cells and
mixed them with cancer cells to see how effectively they attacked the
disease. The women who laughed out loud at the comedy had significantly
healthier immune systems, they found.
In
2005, Michael Miller, and his colleagues from the University of Maryland,
studied the relationship between finding the world funny and the inner
lining of blood vessels. When such vessels expand they increase blood flow
around the body, and promote cardiovascular wellbeing. Participants were
shown scenes from films that were likely to make them either feel anxious
(such as the opening thirty minutes of Saving Private Ryan), or laugh
(such as the 'orgasm' scene from When Harry Met Sally). Overall,
participants' blood flow dropped by around 35 per cent after watching the
stress-inducing films, but rose by 22 per cent following the more humorous
material. On the basis of the results, the researchers recommend that
people laugh for at least fifteen minutes each day.
In
a similar vein, James Rotton examined the effects that watching different
kinds of videos had on hospital patients recovering from orthopedic
surgery.' One group of patients was asked to select funny films from a
list including Bananas, Naked Gun, and The Producers. Another group was
denied access to any material that might induce a smile, and were instead
asked to select movies from a 'serious' list, including titles such as
Brigadoon, Casablanca, and Dr No. The experimenters secretly monitored the
quantity of major pain-relievers that the patients consumed via a
self-controlled pump. Those watching funny films used just over 60 per
cent less pain-relieving drugs than those looking at the serious movies.
In an interesting twist to the experiment, the researchers also included
another group of patients who were not allowed to select which comedy
films to watch, but instead were given the movies selected by others. This
group administered significantly more drugs than either of the other
groups, scientifically proving that there is nothing more painful than
watching a comedy that doesn't make you laugh.
Another team of researchers asked participants to reflect on their
mortality by constructing a mock will, completing their own death
certificate (including an estimate of their date and cause of death), and
writing the eulogy for their own funeral." Researchers discovered that
those who had exhibited a prior tendency to laugh at the absurdities of
life did not find the tasks as stressful as more gloomy participants.
Exactly the same effect has emerged in more realistic settings.
Bereavement counselors interviewed people six months after they had lost a
spouse, and found that those who could laugh about the loss were more able
than others to come to terms with the situation and move on with their
lives.
Other research,
led by cardiologist Dr Michael Miller of the University of Maryland,
further supports this valuable discovery by Norman Cousins about the value
of humor. Miller carried
out a series of studies on humor and heart disease after being struck by
how little his cardiac patients seemed to laugh. He decided to formally
test this observation on the next 150 heart patients by using a simple
questionnaire designed to "measure the propensity to laugh under a variety
of situations encountered in everyday life". Compared with 150 healthy
controls, he found that the heart patients "were significantly less likely
to experience laughter during daily activities, surprise situations or
social interactions". The statistical significance of the effect was far
greater than for other standard risk measures such as cholesterol or high
blood pressure (Int J Cardiol, 2001; 80: 87-8).
These findings
set Dr Miller to wondering how it was that laughter—or the lack of
it—could have an effect on the body. He used funny movies to check it out.
He measured blood flow in viewers' arteries while they were watching clips
from both comedies and war movies. He found that laughter expanded the blood vessels,
increasing blood flow to the heart by 22 per cent. Stress did the reverse,
reducing the arterial lumen by 35 per cent (Heart, 2006; 92: 261-2).
Increased blood flow helps improve the health of the lining of the blood
vessels, which is important for warding off heart disease. "We know " says Dr Miller
"that exercising and not smoking both benefit the heart.
Regular, hearty laughter should probably now be added to the list."
In fact,
laughter is as good for your heart as a gym workout: watching comedies
can improve the health of blood vessels. As we laugh, the blood
vessels in our body expand, increasing the blood flow and improving the
performance of our circulatory system, the research team discovered.
"Laughing may be important to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease”
said Dr Miller. "The magnitude of change we saw in the blood vessel lining
is similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without
the aches, pains - and muscle tension associated with exercise," he
claimed.
"We don't
recommend that you laugh and not exercise, but we do recommend you try to
laugh on a regular basis. 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis seems to
be very good for the circulation system," said Dr Miller. The team also
found that watching disturbing films, caused viewers' blood vessels to
constrict. After watching the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan,
it was found that subjects' blood vessel linings developed a potentially
unhealthy response called vasoconstriction, which reduces the blood flow.
Just how does laughter affect blood vessels?
Researchers at Loma Linda University in California attempted to find the
answer. Again, funny films were shown to volunteers, and their hormone
levels measured afterwards. The researchers found significant reductions
in the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine, both well-known risk
factors for heart disease (Am J Med Sci, 1989; 298: 390-6). Encouraged by
these results, the Loma Linda group widened their research to the immune
system in general. This, too, showed that laughter offered major benefits,
boosting the body's production of natural-killer (NK) cells, B cells,
helper T cells and immunoglobulins. Some of these effects persisted hours
after having seen the humorous films (Altern Ther Health Med, 2001; 7:
62-72, 74-6).
Which part of
the brain is involved when we laugh? Peter Derks, a researcher at the
College of William and Mary, recorded electroencephalograms on individuals
as they were presented with humorous material. While the joke was being
set up, activity in the left cerebral hemisphere dominated as the subject
analyzed and processed the information. Then the dominant activity shifted
to the frontal lobe, the center of emotionality. Moments later, when the
subject seemed to be trying to ‘get’ the joke, the right hemisphere’s
activity joined in. A few milliseconds later, prior to laughing, increased
brain activity spread to the occipital lobe, where the processing of
sensory information takes place. As the person ‘got’ the joke and laughter
began, delta waves increased and reached a crescendo. Derks’s findings
suggest that there is no ‘humor center’ but that various parts of the
brain work together when we experience delight and laughter. Whereas most
emotions tend to involve only discrete parts of the brain, laughter uses
most of the brain’s primary areas – that is, the cortex, the frontal lobe
and motor regions.
A study of
cerebral blood flow with positron emission tomography yields additional
insight into how the brain functions during the experience of positive
emotions. Investigators examined cerebral blood flow during states of
sadness and happiness in healthy women. During happiness no detectable
increase in blood flow was found anywhere in the cerebrum; in fact, there
was decreased flow in the prefrontal and temporoparietal cortical areas,
suggesting that positive emotion puts the brain momentarily at rest -
precisely what appears desirable for healing.
Note:
Cousins was careful not to recommend laughter as a panacea: ‘Obviously
what worked for me may not work for everyone else. Accumulating research
points to a connection between laughter and immune enhancement but it
would be an error and indeed irresponsible to suggest that laughter – or
the positive emotions in general – have universal or automatic validity,
whatever the circumstances. People respond differently to the same things.
One man’s humor is another man’s ho-hum. The treatment of illness has to
be carefully tailored to suit the individual." Further, he clearly
realized that more than laughter had been involved in his improvement. For
instance, he had taken large doses of vitamin C in addition to focusing on
positive emotions. And humor was not the only emotion he brought into the
mix. He says he tried to include the full range of positive affect:
included love, hope, faith, will to live, festivity, purpose and
determination.
Energy Detox
gives the body the needed boost to start to return integrity to
the body,
enabling it
to reverse
the decades of accumulated poisons.
It does not treat disease.
The information provided is intended for educational purposes;
it is not to be construed as providing medical advice or
substituting for professional services.
