We know that laughter doesn't just make life fun, it keeps us healthy, releases endorphins and it can even cure disease! On of the most famous laughers of all times is Norman Cousins. Cousins was a magazine editor who go a bad diagnosis in 1964. Doctors found that the connective tissue in his spine was deteriorating. One of those doctors, a close friend, told himthat his chance of survival was approximately 1 in 500. Realizing that death was a very real probability, Cousins took action. He took three radical steps against his doctors' advice.
First, he researched all the various drugs he was taking. He discovered that his condition depleted his body of Vitamin C. Based primarily on Cousins' personal research, his doctors agreed to inject him with mega-doses of the supplement. Second, Cousins checked himself out of the hopital and into a hotel. Because Cousins believed hospitals had haphazard hygiene practes, a culture of overmedication, feelings on negativity and routines that kept patients from sleeping, he felt hospitals were "no place for a person who is seriously ill."
Third, Cousins grabbed a movie projector, an armload of Marx Brothers' movies and a bunch of Candid Camera episodes. He set up a projector in his hotel room and laughed so hard watching the funny clips that his stomach hurt. His laughter stimulated enough natural chemicvals to allow him to sleep peacefully for several hours. When pain woke him back up, he would switch the projector back on again until he laughed himself back to sleep. Cousins reasoned that if negative emotions like anger and resentment could make someone sick, positive emotions like happiness and laughter could make someone well! He knew he was on the right track because he measured the changes in his body as he laughed by measuring the blood sedimentation rate, a key measure of inflammation and infection in the blood. His rate dropped by at least five points each time he watched a funny show. In stead of taking massive doses of drugs and feeling fear, Cousins literally laughed himself back to health! Within a few weeks he was back at work at the Saturday Evening Review. Even if Cousins' cure was a one-time fluke, all kinds of other experiments show that laughter will keep you alive and smiling! The Associated Press ran an article that claimed laughter may be good for the heart. A team of Maryland medical researchers at the Center for Preventative Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in humorous situations than those with healthy hearts.
Need a good cleanse on the inside? Find a funny friend. Have dinner with someone who makes you laugh out loud. See a movie that makes you laugh 'til you cry. You need a bath! on the inside.By Vicki Hitzges
We know that laughter doesn't just make life fun, it keeps us healthy, releases endorphins and it can even cure disease! On of the most famous laughers of all times is Norman Cousins. Cousins was a magazine editor who go a bad diagnosis in 1964. Doctors found that the connective tissue in his spine was deteriorating. One of those doctors, a close friend, told himthat his chance of survival was approximately 1 in 500. Realizing that death was a very real probability, Cousins took action. He took three radical steps against his doctors' advice.
First, he researched all the various drugs he was taking. He discovered that his condition depleted his body of Vitamin C. Based primarily on Cousins' personal research, his doctors agreed to inject him with mega-doses of the supplement. Second, Cousins checked himself out of the hopital and into a hotel. Because Cousins believed hospitals had haphazard hygiene practes, a culture of overmedication, feelings on negativity and routines that kept patients from sleeping, he felt hospitals were "no place for a person who is seriously ill."
Third, Cousins grabbed a movie projector, an armload of Marx Brothers' movies and a bunch of Candid Camera episodes. He set up a projector in his hotel room and laughed so hard watching the funny clips that his stomach hurt. His laughter stimulated enough natural chemicvals to allow him to sleep peacefully for several hours. When pain woke him back up, he would switch the projector back on again until he laughed himself back to sleep. Cousins reasoned that if negative emotions like anger and resentment could make someone sick, positive emotions like happiness and laughter could make someone well! He knew he was on the right track because he measured the changes in his body as he laughed by measuring the blood sedimentation rate, a key measure of inflammation and infection in the blood. His rate dropped by at least five points each time he watched a funny show. In stead of taking massive doses of drugs and feeling fear, Cousins literally laughed himself back to health! Within a few weeks he was back at work at the Saturday Evening Review. Even if Cousins' cure was a one-time fluke, all kinds of other experiments show that laughter will keep you alive and smiling! The Associated Press ran an article that claimed laughter may be good for the heart. A team of Maryland medical researchers at the Center for Preventative Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in humorous situations than those with healthy hearts.
Need a good cleanse on the inside? Find a funny friend. Have dinner with someone who makes you laugh out loud. See a movie that makes you laugh 'til you cry. You need a bath! on the inside.By Vicki Hitzges