| Raymond A. Moody, Jr. , a Georgia
physician, credits his sense of humor for getting him through the terrible grind
of medical school. Yet not once, in all those years of training, did professor
Moody bring up the health benefits of laughter? "As time went on," Moody relates in his book Laugh After Laugh: The Healing Power of Humor, "I came to feel that a human being' s ability to laugh is just as valid an indicator of his health as are all those other things that doctors check." Gradually, many members of the medical establishment are coming around to the same thinking. Dr. William Fry,Jr. , a Stanford University researcher, has studied the beneficial effects of laughter for more than 30 years. "When we laugh," Fry explains, "muscles are activated. When we stop laughing, these muscles relax. Since muscle tension magnifies pain, many people with arthritis, rheumatism and other painful conditions benefit greatly from a healthy dose of laughter. Many headache sufferers feel the same relief." How can we all get more laughter into our lives? Here' s what the experts prescribe: Mix with people who laugh. Nancy Alguire, a teacher in Clifton Park, N.Y. was once painfully shy and had a hard time laughing. Then she married a circus enthusiast. "I became intrigued with the clowns," she recalls. "One day I put on a costume and asked a clown to paint my face. That afternoon my whole life changed. I learned to laugh and enjoy life in a way I had never done before." She went on to teach clowning at a local community college. To this day, she says, "I still make a point of mixing with people who enjoy life and laughing--because their joy rubs off on those around them." To help get humor-minded people together, several "laughter clubs" have sprung up around the country. Virginia Tooper, who publishes a newsletter called "Laugh Lovers News," tells of four typical women who gather for a restaurant lunch every Thursday in Phoenix. Each comes armed with at least one funny experience from the week, and the storyteller who receives the biggest laugh gets a free lunch-paid for by the others. |