|
|
|
|
March Issue |
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
 |
By Bill Strubbe
As medical science is slowly learning, a merry heart may be the best medicine.
 |  The Indian physician Madan Kataria leads prisoners in a laughter class in a Mumbai (Bombay) jail. When practised in groups, Kataria's "thought -free" laughter exercises benefit participants' general well-being.
 andering through the public gardens at Lokhandwala Park in Mumbai, India, early in the morning, you might cross paths with a mirthful group of folks contorting their faces and laughing in unison. After 15 or 20 minutes of deep breathing and ho-ho-ha-has, followed by simulated laughter including hearty guffaws, quiet
tee-hees, roaring lion laughter, silent laughter, and tittering cocktail laughter, the group disperses, beginning the day with a smile.
The more than 900 laugh clubs in India are the inspiration of Dr. Madan
Kataria, who observed while working as a family physician that patients' immune systems and general well-being improved following bouts of laughter. Kataria eventually left his medical practice and fine-tuned to a near-science his daily regimen of "thought-free" laughter, creating yoga laughter classes that have spread from India to the Far East, Europe, and North America.
Kataria's methods have found a strong supporter in the United States. "I felt a great calling, a synchronicity with the information, and felt I needed to deliver this message," says Steve Wilson, a psychologist of 40 years who met Kataria and is now one of America's leading
"joyologists." Wilson has certified more than 100 laugh leaders--among them high school students and inmates at King County's North Rehabilitation Facility. "I was astonished how much research had been already done that substantiated what I thought to be true," he says.
Within the burgeoning field of gelotology (from the Greek
gelos, or "laughter"), the scientific study of laughter, an expanding body of research is being compiled. Over 500 academicians belong to the International Society for Humor Studies, and doctors, psychiatrists, and mental health professionals increasingly prescribe laughter therapy to help people cope with physical, mental, and spiritual issues.
What's so funny?
 ohn Morreall, professor of religion at the College of William and Mary and a consultant to business on the benefits of humor in the workplace, has conjectured that laughter might have begun among early humans as an acknowledgment of mutual relief at the passing of danger. In Phantoms of the Brain, (William Morrow & Company, 1998) neuroscientist
V.S. Ramachandran suggests a similar origin: "The main purpose of laughter might be to allow the individual to alert others in the social group that the detected anomaly is trivial, nothing to worry about." Elaborations on these ideas propose that the release of tension after laughter counters the biological fight-or-flight response and helps indicate trust in one's companions, thus strengthening communal connections.
Primates, including humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans, are the only mammals known to create audible laughter. As observed in the wild and at the Yerkes Primate Research Center in Atlanta, primates frequently engage in chase and tickle behaviors that elicit panting sounds. These rapid respiratory expirations are somewhat similar to the human laughter pattern but lack the familiar "ha-ha" vocalization.
Tickling games with their attendant laughter are seen as important bonding experiences between older people and small children, among small children, and between romantically inclined couples. In such circumstances, "a very intense personal interaction takes place, creating a high level of intimacy, or bonding," explains Dr. William Fry, a  | Tickling and its associated laughter meddles with emotions and plays with bodily processes. When tickling occurs in a positive context, such as between a loving parent and a trusting child, the shared laughter builds deep bonds.
psychiatrist and emeritus clinical professor in psychiatry at Stanford University. Fry has studied humor since the 1950s and was among those who coined the term gelotology in 1963. "The person who makes you mirthful not only meddles with your emotions but also plays with your bodily processes. When you joke and kid around, you make others' hearts beat faster, increase their circulation, change their breathing pattern, change the hormone and immune elements in their bloodstreams, and make certain muscles active and others relaxed, so they feel physically weakened."
A person in a dominant social position--the company boss, family patriarch, or village chief--tends to use humor more frequently than underlings do. By controlling the group's laughter, he exercises power over its mood. For example, in a potentially humiliating or threatening situation, laughter may serve as a conciliatory gesture or a method to avert anger. If the menacing individual succumbs to the laughter, the confrontation is likely averted.
There are three categories of humor: relief, incongruity, and superiority. For our ancestors, the laughter of relief signaled the passing of a life-and-death threat. Today's filmmakers often rely on the humor of relief, creating episodes in which tension and suspense build to a crescendo; the viewer is then allowed to release pent-up emotion through the interjection of an aside or a sight gag. In real life, the release of laughter allows a person to cope with stressful or dangerous situations.
Incongruity humor arises when logic and familiarity are replaced with things that don't normally go together. When a joke or situation takes an unexpected turn, the juxtaposition of incompatible thoughts and emotions strikes us as funny. Hence the humor of puns, talking duck jokes, and many other--often bad--jokes.
Superiority humor comes into play when we laugh at jokes that focus on someone else's mistakes, stupidity, or misfortune. We feel superior to this person, experience a certain detachment from the situation, and so are able to laugh at it.
"Mirth is one of the basic human emotional experiences. It is found throughout the human race," says Fry. "No person or group of persons has been found to lack a sense of humor, except on a temporary basis. ... This demonstrated ubiquity of humor is compatible with the contemporary view of how deeply humor is bred into human existence. Rather than being regarded as learned, as it was previously, humor is now considered to be a genetic, biological characteristic of the human race."
Another prominent laugh researcher is Robert Provine, a professor of neurology and psychology at the University of Maryland. Provine and his associates have spent a lot of time eavesdropping on adults and children in stores, malls, restaurants, and on the street, noting their laughter, chuckles, and guffaws. In lab settings, he records people's laughter and analyzes the data in an acoustic laboratory.
"Cross-cultural evidence suggests that males are the leading humor producers and females are the leading laughers," says
Provine. "These differences are already present by the time that joking first appears around six years of age."
His research has established that less than 20 percent of laughter is in response to anything resembling a joke; rather, most laughter occurs in the context of conversation (often following very lame remarks). People are 30 times less likely to laugh alone than in a group--hence, television's dependency on laugh tracks.
Laughter on the brain
 hough gelotologists still do not fully understand how the brain processes humor, they do know that puns are "understood" by gyri (bumps on the cerebral cortex, the deeply folded outer portion of the brain) on the left side of the brain. Other complex, non-wordplay jokes are processed by right-side
gyri, then trigger activity in other regions of the brain. It seems that the left side sets up the joke while the right side gets it.
Peter Derks, professor of psychology emeritus at William and Mary College, hooked research subjects up to an electroencephalograph (EEG) that monitored their brain activity while they laughed. In each case, the brain produced a regular electrical pattern. Within four-tenths of a second of exposure to something potentially funny, the EEG recorded a positive electrical pulse moving through the cerebral cortex. Laughter was associated with episodes in which the original positive pulse became coupled with a negative component, making a whole wave. The negative component appeared to be associated with incongruity detection. No laughter ensued if the initial positive pulse lacked a negative counterpart. The negative pulse was definitive, so Derks could identify laughter-inducing episodes by reading the brain wave record.
Derks' studies, conducted with a group of researchers from NASA-Langley in Hampton, Virginia, confirmed that laughter is associated with many regions of the brain, unlike emotional responses, which are confined to specific areas. During the experiment, for example, the researchers observed activity in the left, front, right, and rear of the cerebral cortex as well as in the motor section of the brain, a narrow strip running from the top center of each hemisphere partway down toward the base of the cortex.
The limbic system, a network of structures nestled beneath the cerebral cortex, also appears to be central to laughter. Among reptiles and mammals, it controls such essential behaviors as self-preservation and finding food. In the alligator, for example, the limbic system plays an important role in smell, defending territory, and hunting, while in humans its functional arenas include motivation and emotional behaviors.
A rare opportunity to explore brain-driven laughter and mirth occurred when a young, seizure-prone woman was examined by Itzhak Fried, director of epilepsy surgery at the UCLA Medical Center. When a restricted area of her left frontal cortex was electrically stimulated, she consistently laughed and perceived whatever she happened to be looking at as funny. Low levels of stimulation made her smile, while higher levels elicited belly laughs.
Laughter and health
hough research into the healing benefits of laughter dates back to the 1930s, the 1978 book Anatomy of an Illness stands out as a major milestone to legitimizing laughter as a subject for medical research. It was written by journalist Norman Cousins, who suffered from ankylosing spondylitis (a degenerative connective tissue disease). By watching and laughing heartily at funny films, Cousins achieved considerable easing of his crippling pain and other symptoms. Researchers hypothesize that endorphins released as a result of laughter may help reduce the intensity of pain of arthritis,
spondylitis, and muscular spasms.
Psychoneuroimmunology, a relatively new field of medical research, explores how emotions affect the immune system. Negative emotions and stress are correlated with
immunosuppression, as partially measured by increased levels of epinephrine and cortisol in the patient's blood. These stress hormones also increase the number of platelets (which can cause arterial obstruction) and raise blood pressure.
In 1989, Dr. Lee Berk, associate director of the Center for
Neuroimmunology, and Dr. Stanley Tan, | Psychotherapist Jacki Kwan has created a program of therapeutic laughter for nursing home residents whose lives are often devoid of laughter. Here, after the laughter exercises, Kwan leads the group in reciting, "I am the happiest person alive. Yes!"
assistant professor of medicine, both at Loma Linda University in California, began studying how laughter changes the levels of epinephrine,
cortisol, and natural killer cells, which are responsible for the early recognition and removal of virus and tumor cells. In their experiment, subjects watched a 60-minute humorous video; the control subjects did not. Blood samples were obtained from each subject before, during, and after the viewing. For the experimental group, the natural killer cells increased significantly from the baseline level before the viewing to the recovery level after the viewing, but there was no significant change in the control group. For all phases, epinephrine levels in the experimental group were significantly lower than in the control group. Cortisol levels decreased more significantly from the baseline level in the experimental group than in the control group. Their results are supported by similar research conducted by Mary
Bennet, assistant dean of the School of Nursing at Indiana State University.
Berk and Tan have reported experiments documenting that laughter increases levels of gamma interferon (a disease-fighting protein); T cells, which are a major part of the immune response; and B cells, which make disease-destroying antibodies. Laughter also increases the concentration of salivary immunoglobulin A, which defends against infectious organisms entering through the respiratory tract. The stimulating effects on the immune system can, in some instances, be observed for several hours after the laughing bout.
Laughter generally commences with the vigorous expiration of air, and in a given bout of it more expiration occurs than inspiration. Hence, laughter is one of the best exercises for those suffering from asthma and bronchitis. It improves lung capacity and blood oxygen levels. Blowing forcefully into an instrument and inflating balloons are common asthmatic exercises to help dispel mucous from the respiratory passages. Laughter performs the same job, though more easily and free of cost.
Exercise devotees will be happy to hear that muscles throughout the body are exercised by mirthful behavior. According to Fry, "Smiles produce activity of facial, neck, and scalp muscles. Chuckling and laughter stimulate the muscles in the thorax, shoulders, and abdomen, as well as the diaphragm and sometimes the arm, leg, and pelvic muscles. All the well-documented health values are recognizable in mirthful muscle activity, and it does not differ in any crucial fashion from aerobic exercise." For sedentary people and those confined to a bed or wheelchair, laughter can be a viable workout.
Laughter to the masses
 n 1987, with awareness of the therapeutic benefits of laughter and humor growing, the American Association for Therapeutic Humor
(AATH) was incorporated as a nonprofit. It publishes a bimonthly newsletter and numerous bibliographies, sponsors annual conferences, and has created a popular Speakers Resource to educate health-care professionals and lay audiences about the therapeutic uses of humor and laughter in the workplace.
Initially, most AATH members were health-care professionals, but there's been a steady increase in membership from those involved in pastoral care, social work, education, and business. "Now that the effects of laughter are being quantified, we can begin to qualify the importance of humor and laughter in the health-care setting, either as an adjunct therapeutic tool for patients or as a self-care tool to offset the harmful effects of job stress," says Patti Wooten, author of Heart, Humor and Healing and Compassionate Laughter: Jest for Your Health. "Further research is needed to study more directly the effects of humor on health-care worker burnout and sick time, and patient length of hospitalization and compliance with treatment plan. Now that we have solid scientific research, it makes it easier to approach administrations for funding and staff."
Two years ago, Steve Wilson closed his psychology practice to devote himself full-time 0to World Laughter Tours, a group that teaches people how to create positive workplaces and manage health and stress through humor. "I felt I needed to pay more and more attention to growing and making these laughter-club programs systematic and self-sustaining," says Wilson. "There's a big mission here, more than I can accomplish in my lifetime. I want to create an organization that can outlive me."
Laughter sessions vary from leader to leader, but Wilson's typically combine stretching, stimulated laughter exercises, and yogic deep breathing. The rhythmic movement of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles helps stimulate the calming branch of the nervous system (parasympathetic system). Deep breathing and laughter also help increase the net supply of oxygen, massage the digestive tract and improve blood supply to the internal organs, stimulate circulation, and strengthen the respiratory apparatus, which supplies oxygen to the body.
In 1998, Wilson traveled to India and met the original guru of giggles, Dr.
Kataria. "In the West we were proceeding on the mistaken notion that to receive the benefits of laughter, you had to be laughing as a result of humor," explains Wilson. "You run out of jokes, or they flop, but in India, Dr. Kataria took the approach of bypassing the humor and getting directly to the laughter by creating a deliberate way to laugh." Wilson chuckles when he remembers when Kataria told him: "Indians are so depressed that if we waited for them to get a sense of humor, they'd never get laughing."
Medical research shows that if you pretend to be laughing or act happy, your body produces "happy chemicals." Laughter, whether spontaneous or as a form of exercise, leads to the same set of physiological changes. Although laughter may start out as an exercise, its infectious nature can quickly transform the group's experience into mirthful laughter.
Laughter remains outside the box of medical treatments. It's simple, satisfying, and free. Yet scientists have already documented its positive physiological effects, and the new research arena is clinical studies to document its possible therapeutic effects. These studies cost more, take much longer to conduct, and are generally outside the scope of medical-research funding sources.
Nonetheless, with therapists, scientists, physicians, and public promoters rallying around laughter's promise, the mirthful exercise may well gain entry into the field of legitimate medical research. As it does so, we all may find new reasons for appreciating the people who make us happy.
On the Internet
American Association for Therapeutic Humor (Patti Wooten)
www.aath.org
HA!HA!LOGY (Jacki Kwan)
Laughter Club International (Madan Kataria)
www.laughteryoga.org
Laughter Links
www.biz.howstuffworks.com/laughter7.htm
World Laughter Tour (Steve Wilson)
www.worldlaughtertour.com
Bill Strubbe is a freelance writer residing in Oakland, California.
|
|
|
|
|
