Laugh your way to better health

This Week In The HSI Healthier Talk Community

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.”

I’ve always gotten a kick out of that joke, and I enjoyed it once again when I came across it on a thread titled “Humor” that you’ll find on the HSI Healthier Talk community this week. (Check under the forum titled: “Humor: The Best Medicine.)

In response to the comic stories that appear on this thread, an HSI member who goes by “doinkdoink,” posted this comment: “Please keep up the wonderful posts. I have laughed so well here. Did you know that the average child 3-8 laughs about 300 times a day and an adult between 30-80 averages only 4 laughs a week (actual guffaws). Don’t know if that is true, but nothing helps me like a good laugh.”

Doinkdoink obviously believes that adults don’t laugh enough, and a member named Naturalway notes that research backs up the idea that a good laugh may be closely linked with good health: “There’s actually a new medical field-Psychoneuroimmunology, which explores the links among emotions and the nervous, endocrine and immune systems.”

Naturalway cites two studies. In the first, researchers at Loma Linda University School of Medicine found that subjects who watched comedy videos significantly improved their immune response.

In the second study, from the University of Maryland, people with heart disease were found to be less likely to laugh at a variety of comic situations compared to healthy people of the same age. Researcher Michael Miller, M.D., is quoted by Naturalway: “We don’t know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions. People with heart disease respond less humorously to everyday life situations.”

Naturalway adds: “According to William F. Fry, MD assoc. professor of clinical psychiatry at Stanford Univ, laughing 100-200 times per day is the cardiovascular equivalent of rowing for 10 minutes. Several studies were done which showed that when people watched a funny movie they had a higher pain threshold. It’s worked for me!”

There are many places where you can find a good laugh, and the “Humor” thread is one of them. Members have posted jokes, quotes and comic stories with a full range of humor: from gentle to dark to a little off color.

I’ll leave you with this one, and if it prompts a chuckle, you can thank a member named Jerry for perhaps giving your heart a healthy little jolt:

“An aged farmer and his wife were leaning against the edge of their pig-pen when the old woman wistfully recalled that the next week would mark their golden wedding anniversary. ‘Let’s have a party, Homer,’ she suggested. ‘Let’s kill a pig.’

“The farmer scratched his grizzled head. ‘Gee, Ethel,’ he finally answered, ‘I don’t see why the pig should take the blame for something that happened fifty years ago.'”

Other conversations underway this week in the Healthier Talk community include:

• Arthritis: Lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis
• Memory: Seeing is remembering
• General Health Topics: Another healthy oil
• Vitamin Questions: Vitamin/mineral supplement for my dog
• Headaches/Migraine: Celery juice cure for migraine headaches
• Heart: The benefits of taking niacin

To reach the HSI Healthier Talk community, just go to our web site at hsionline.com, click on “Forum,” and add your voice to the wide range of topics concerning health care and nutrition.