1/1/2006 - A Cheerful Heart is Good Medicine - Arlene Taylor, PhD

Someone has said that laughter is a smile that has taken on life. Laughter can turn almost any disadvantage into an advantage. When you look for humor in your misfortunes, they do not necessarily go away but you tend to perceive them from a different perspective. The seat of humor and the home of new options are believed to reside very close to each other in the brain. When you develop and use a healthy sense of humor, you can disengage from your predicaments to some degree and can marshal your resources to recognize opportunities more easily. Humor helps you to maintain perspective, and avoid getting caught up in your own melodramas. As Charles Schulz, creator of the cartoon character PEANUTS, said, “If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.”
In his book Who Gets Sick, author Justice Blair wrote “If we assume a facial expression of happiness we can increase blood flow to the brain and stimulate release of favorable neurotransmitters.” When your face shapes a smile—even more so when you’re engaged in mirthful laughter—your immune system is boosted. The level of the antibody Immunoglobulin A (IgA), designed to provide localized protection on mucous membranes, increases.
Sir William Osler referred to laughter as the music of life and believed that a patient with a well-developed sense of humor had a better chance of recovery than a stolid individual who seldom laughed. In his book Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins described how laughter helped him heal from a life-threatening auto-immune disease. Where injections of morphine had failed, he reported 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.” No doubt, since laughter stimulates the release of endorphins, the body’s own natural pain-killers which are 200 times more powerful than morphine.
Author Allen Klein wrote in The Healing Power of Humor, “After a fallen tree has landed on your car, putting a sign on it that reads COMPACT CAR may not make the car whole again, but it will help you see your misfortune a little differently.” When I landed my first organ-playing job for pay, I arrived at the church in plenty of time for the Sunday morning service. Six-inch letters on the large billboard prominently situated on the front lawn announced the sermon title: “Do You Know What Hell Is?” Underneath, in five-inch letters were the words, “Come and hear our new organist.” During the service I was so busy trying to keep my laughter under wraps that I completely forgot to be nervous.
Psychoneuroimmunology, the study of the mind-body connection, is tracing the effect of one’s thoughts on neurotransmitter ratios in the brain as well as on immune system function. Unmanaged grief is associated with lowered activity of the body’s T-cells (a type of white blood cell that attacks foreign invaders). Positive thinking styles are associated with higher levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that has an antidepressant action. Anxiety and muscle relaxation cannot really coexist. The relaxation response after a good laugh has been measured as lasting as long as forty-five minutes.
Evidence is accumulating to support the old axiom that a cheerful heart is good medicine. Choosing to wear a pleasant facial expression and to smile and laugh frequently does not mean you deny other appropriate emotions. It does mean you recognize that only twenty percent of the affect to your life from a given situation results from the event itself, while eighty percent can be contributed by your perception of and response to the event. A positive mental attitude, along with smiles and laughter, can improve your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. Make that choice. Start now! www.arlenetaylor.org