An Easy Prescription for a Healthier You: One Chuckle, Three Times Daily

Humor may be a laughing matter, but it also has a serious side. In fact, the old adage, "Laughter is good medicine," is actually sound medical advice.

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Even though we often tend to dismiss humor as frivolous and playful, the medical benefits it offers are too good to ignore. A belly laugh works wonders for your health by releasing endorphins, naturally occurring neurohormones. Even something as minor as simply changing your facial expression from a frown to a smile can change your body chemistry and your inner thoughts.

Researchers have found that humor offers very real therapeutic benefits, including reducing unhealthy stress, decreasing anxiety, reducing pain and even increasing immunity. Humor can be a real morale builder that helps people feel more stable, more creative, and more hopeful. It's been shown to improve communications and certainly can help change one's perspective.

If that sounds like a lot of benefit from something as simple as laughing, try this experiment. Smile for a minute, even if you do not feel like smiling. What thoughts and feelings do you have? Next make a frown. What thoughts and feelings come to mind when you frown? Now, put on the smile again and try to think a pessimistic thought-like "I will never get my work done today." You should find it hard to take that negative thought seriously when your face is actually saying something much different.

How does humor work? You can think of your smile as a switch that activates your neurohormones and neurotransmitters and the nerve impulses that they activate. Putting on a happy face sends your body positive messages and usually can make you feel at least a little better.

Knowing the benefits, how do you bring humor into your daily life? One way is to do things that you know will provide you with regular doses of humor.

• Read a book, article or story by a writer you find funny. Dave Barry and Erma Bombeck are two nationally known names, but there are plenty of other funny writers.
• Make a scrapbook of cartoons. When something tickles your funny bone from the newspaper comics or the cartoons in a magazine, clip it and save it. Then revisit that scrapbook upon occasion for a few familiar chuckles.
• Be on the lookout for the odd twist. It might be a picture that strikes you as funny. It might be a bit of word play, or someone naively saying something with multiple meanings. Keep a little notebook of puns and funny sayings.
• Let them entertain you. If you've got a favorite comedy on TV, make the time to watch it and have a few laughs.. Visit your local video store and rent a tape of a funny movie. It can be something current, or an old classic like Charlie Chaplin or the Marx Brothers. It's great therapy when you're feeling blue or sick, and if you can get a friend to watch and laugh along with you, you'll find the experience even more rewarding.
• Make a bulletin board for your home or office that you use to collect funny things. Not only will the pictures, sayings, signs or cartoons that you put there give you a laugh, but the job of looking for more funny things to put up there is an enjoyable activity in its own right.

The power of humor and laughter is too good to pass up. It can help to keep you healthier and feeling better about yourself and the world around you. Most importantly, it's one of the easiest and most enjoyable things to do for a better and healthier you.

There are countless ways to add humor to your life. For most people, it's simply a matter of allowing yourself opportunities to smile and laugh. It's guaranteed to give you at least a momentary change of attitude, but do it often enough and you may find your whole world brightening.

Carol Langenfeld is a counselor in private practice with extensive experience in helping those living with chronic illness. She is the author, with Douglas E. Langenfeld, of Living Better: Every Patient's Guide to Living with Illness. She can be contacted through www.patientpress.com.