Laughter is good medicine

Now that I’ve had hoppin’ john with black-eyed peas at dinner on New Year’s Day for good luck throughout year, I’d also like to laugh more, too, since laughter is reportedly good for your health and happiness. Years ago, I read an article about a man who had a terminal illness and was told there was nothing that could be done for him. As I remember it, the man decided to forgo any treatment and went home to die. Then he decided to enjoy what life he had left by watching humorous movies and sitcoms on television, listening to comedians and doing anything that made him laugh. Sounded reasonable.

While I’m not sure it was true, I’ve thought about the article through the years but could never remember where I’d read it. Although I’m not ready to “buy the farm” yet, but like everybody, the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” have taken their toll, and my light will be going out at some point. So I started Googling to see if I could find the article and what I could find about laughter being good medicine for us all, regardless of our current health.

I never found the article, but there are plenty of quotes and articles about laughter being good for you.

One of the first responses I found said, “Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. [It] can also activate and relieve your stress response.”

Another response said, “Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain.”

The Mayo Clinic “emphasizes that happiness isn't just a feeling but a powerful driver for better physical and mental health, leading to increased lifespan, lower stress, better coping, stronger relationships, and improved heart health by fostering creativity and resilience, often cultivated through gratitude, kindness, positive thinking and meaningful connections.” 

That all makes sense. We’re happier when we laugh. It’s like getting a good night’s sleep, exercising, eating a good diet, limiting alcohol (if you drink), and all the other healthy platitudes we hear regularly. I try to get a good night’s sleep, exercise a little, eat healthy—all of which I didn’t used to do. And I still drop by the Urbana VFW regularly, more for the laughter I hear there than for a drink.

Laughter is what Norman Cousins, former editor of The Saturday Review wrote about in a book, “Anatomy of an Illness,” after being diagnosed with a crippling and irreversible disease and “forged a collaboration with his physician, and together they were able to beat the odds.”

I haven’t read the book, published by Norton in 1979, but Cousins also wrote about it initially in an article in 1976 in the New England Journal of Medicine about his “self-healing experience” that he says happened in 1964, which was about the time I remember reading the article about somebody spending time laughing when he had a terminal disease.

In an article by William T. Jarvis, Ph.D., published in 2000, he wrote about Cousins’ claim of returning from a trip to the Soviet Union and complaining of stiffness in his limbs and noodles (solid or fluid-filled lumps) on his neck and hands. He was “tentatively diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (a degenerative and inflammatory disease that, over time, can cause some of the bones in the spine, called vertebrae, to fuse).”

After he experienced “adverse reactions to most of the drugs he was given,” he decided, with the doctor’s approval, to discontinue all medication except vitamin C and take care of it himself. Remembering the “power of positive emotions and the value of power of vitamin C,” he checked out of the hospital and checked into a hotel where he “received intravenous injections (and) watched humorous films and read humorous books. Eventually most of the symptoms disappeared and he regained most of his freedom of movement.”

There apparently was no confirmation of the diagnosis or that his approach had worked. But it brought about 3,000 letters from doctors “praising his decision to pursue self-treatment and supporting his mind-over-matter healing ideas.”

No doubt laughter does promote physical and mental health, although I’m skeptical about it curing a serious illness. But I’ll still try to laugh at films, comedians, books, stop by the VFW for laughs, and continue to laugh at the pathetic lies I hear daily, many from our politicians.

So laughter, if you can do it in the world we’re living in today, might help your disposition, your perspective and your health.

I’ll still go to the doctor when I’m sick, though.