Terapy With Laughter

[JAQUIROUIN]

DO YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THE TERAPY WITH LAUGHTER?

HAVE A NICE DAY

[taylortotmom]

Laughter has been scientifically proven to help with illness. I remember studying in school about a man who had cancer. He of course, followed his doctor's orders and took all appropriate medicine. However, he also watched an hour of "The Three Stooges" everyday. He had a full remission of his cancer and attributes a lot of that to the positive PHYSICAL benefits of laughter. So, yes there is a school of thought that laughter can release hormones which aid in healing. And that's no joke!

Carmen

[Sophia3]

Norman Cousins was a famous writer who wrote a book Anatomy of an Illness about his trials with a PAINFUL disease. He also had heart problems.

Here is a blurb from a website about him. If you type his name in a search engine, many things come up. This blurb is from wikipedia.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cousins also served as Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities for the School of Medicine at the University of California, where he did research on the biochemistry of human emotions, which he long-believed were the key to human beings? success in fighting illness. It was a belief he maintained even as he battled heart disease, which he fought both by taking massive doses of Vitamin C and, according to him, by training himself to laugh. He wrote a collecting of best-selling non-fiction books on illness and healing, as well as a 1980 autobiographical memoir, Human Options: An Autobiographical Notebook. Late in life Cousins contracted a form of arthritis then called Marie-Strumpell's disease (Ankylosing Spondylitis). His struggle with this illness is detailed in the book and movie "Anatomy of an Illness."

Told that he had little chance of surviving, Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."

Cousins received the Albert Schweitzer Prize in 1990. He died of heart failure on November 30, 1990 in Los Angeles, California, having survived years longer than his doctors predicted: ten years after his first heart attack, sixteen years after his collagen illness, and twenty-six years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease.

He and his wife Ellen raised five daughters.

[nadine]

There are many articles and books on this subject and without question it has helped many people, including myself. It is what keeps me going," when the going gets tough." I will watch anything that makes me laugh, last night was Steve Martin movie, tonight watching some SNL. I wish I owned some PBS tapes of Loretta Larouche, who many of you may know does stress management with humor. I laugh so hard I can't breathe, maybe not such a good thing but I love her!! Robin Williams can do it for me too, he did play Patch Adams ---which goes along with this topic. Yup, part of my therapy. I am thankful that I also have many friends who are absolute nuts and will rally for me when needed. LOL

[nadine]

Well I decided right after the last post to order the Loretta Laroche tapes- cheaper than most of the meds I have taken and money well spent and the only side affect maybe from laughing too hard!!

[Guest CyberPixie]

There's definitely a mind-body connection. When you feel positive you feel better and laughter gives the whole body a workout and releases so many feel good hormones.

I personally like listening to Steve Penk (only in UK) which you can get from itunes. He does hilariously funny windup calls.

[Jacquie802]

Yeah, I tend to listen or watch Dane Cook. Some of the jokes can be a bit much, but it never fails to make me laugh.

[Sophia3]

I watch all the Marx btothers movies I had on tape from TCM or ACM.

I watched Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Horsefeathers, Monkey Business and someothers until I memorized the lines...had me in stitches..I really thought I was going to heal thyself...but that was back in 1990 and 91....oh well. I tried...and just had to tweak the mindset....