Laughter as Therapy
Laughter As Therapy
Naturally, we as a people dislike feeling bad and like feeling good. Two examples of common things that make us feel bad are sickness and sadness. Common remedies for those things are medicine and humor. Though medicine and humor seem different at first glance, they share very important commonalities; they make us feel good and are key influences on a culture. This connection between health and humor has intrigued scientists for years. Recently, scientists have begun seriously investigating the relationship between the two. More specifically, if laughter is capable of contributing to the field of medicine. Many scientists have reason to believe that laughter could have a significant effect as a therapeutic medicine, whether it be through the physical act of laughing, or through the effects of changing hormone levels. Therefore, the goal of this essay is to educate the readers on the development and experimentation of laughter used as therapeutic medicine in the past, present, and future. Laughter is an age-old, natural human reaction to humor that elicits a feeling comparable with euphoria. For 2,000 years, people have been baffled by why laughter causes humans to feel so good. (Gorman, 2011) In fact, the benefits of humor and laughter are even recognized in Proverbs 17:22 of the Bible, “A cheerful heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit makes one sick.” (The Nurse’s Handbook of Complementary Therapies, 2001) Some cultures, such as the Mayans, have practiced humor in medicine for thousands of years. Specifically, the Mayan healer, Don Elijio Panti, whom lived until he was 103, was described as much of a clown as a doctor. Panti believed that a happy patient was a healthy patient. Without a positive attitude, the patient was less likely to recover from their sickness. He utilized humor techniques, such as making jokes, teasing, and telling stories with dancing and other body movements, to lighten the mood of
Naturally, we as a people dislike feeling bad and like feeling good. Two examples of common things that make us feel bad are sickness and sadness. Common remedies for those things are medicine and humor. Though medicine and humor seem different at first glance, they share very important commonalities; they make us feel good and are key influences on a culture. This connection between health and humor has intrigued scientists for years. Recently, scientists have begun seriously investigating the relationship between the two. More specifically, if laughter is capable of contributing to the field of medicine. Many scientists have reason to believe that laughter could have a significant effect as a therapeutic medicine, whether it be through the physical act of laughing, or through the effects of changing hormone levels. Therefore, the goal of this essay is to educate the readers on the development and experimentation of laughter used as therapeutic medicine in the past, present, and future. Laughter is an age-old, natural human reaction to humor that elicits a feeling comparable with euphoria. For 2,000 years, people have been baffled by why laughter causes humans to feel so good. (Gorman, 2011) In fact, the benefits of humor and laughter are even recognized in Proverbs 17:22 of the Bible, “A cheerful heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit makes one sick.” (The Nurse’s Handbook of Complementary Therapies, 2001) Some cultures, such as the Mayans, have practiced humor in medicine for thousands of years. Specifically, the Mayan healer, Don Elijio Panti, whom lived until he was 103, was described as much of a clown as a doctor. Panti believed that a happy patient was a healthy patient. Without a positive attitude, the patient was less likely to recover from their sickness. He utilized humor techniques, such as making jokes, teasing, and telling stories with dancing and other body movements, to lighten the mood of