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Is Laughter Good
Medicine for Agoraphobia?
by Stephen Price
You have probably heard the old saying that laughter is the
best medicine. You may have read a book called "Anatomy of
an Illness" by Norman Cousins, a man who almost died from
ankylosing spondylitis, a painful rheumatic disease, but
made a miraculous recovery that he attributed to watching
funny movies and laughing often.
For a few years now, scientists have suspected that laughing
might help the immune system fight off diseases, both
physical and psychological, but hard evidence has been
lacking when it comes to research done in this area.
Now, new evidence has been found to support the idea that
laughter may really be good medicine, and that it can
actually change your blood chemistry and help protect you
from disease and depression. It does this by increasing the
level of endorphins in your bloodstream. This is the same
thing that aerobic exercise does.
Endorphins
are neurotransmitters produced by the brain,
usually
following exercise. They cause a pleasurable euphoria that
some people call “the runner’s high.” The euphoria is felt
because endorphins interact with opiate receptors in the
brain to decrease pain. Their physical effect is similar to
drugs like morphine and codeine.
Endorphins are the reason why running and other forms of
cardio-vascular exercise can be therapeutic for anxiety and
stress-related disorders.
Here are some excepts from the article on laughter and
endorphins posted on May 10,
2006 at abcnews.go.com:
"Researchers at Loma Linda University
in Southern California say they have found a physiological
change that occurs when people laugh, and it lasts long
after the laughter subsides.
Laughter, according to the scientists, stimulates the
production of beta-endorphins, also known as the body's own
morphine, and human growth hormone, which helps tune up the
immune system...
The research, which was presented at a recent meeting of the
American Physiological Society called Experimental Biology
in 2006, is consistent with findings at a number of other
institutions.
Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center
reported a few years ago, for example, that their research
showed that an active sense of humor could help prevent
heart disease, but the reason why was not yet clear. Last
year, they expanded on their earlier findings and reported
that laughter has a direct impact on the function of blood
vessels, allowing an increase in the flow of blood..."
Lee Berk and his colleagues at Loma Linda University studied
the effects of laughter on heart patients in 2001.
"The 48 patients were divided in two groups, one of which
watched 30 minutes of comedy every day, in addition to their
regular cardiac care program. The other group didn't see the
movies.
The patients were followed or one year, and the results were
dramatic.
"Heart attacks diminished drastically in the group that
watched the comedies," Berk says. Other symptoms improved to
the point that medications were reduced. Only two of the
patients who watched the movies had heart attacks during the
experiment, compared to 10 who did not see the movies...
"Berk and several colleagues
continued the line of research, which led to their most recent findings.
They recruited 16 healthy males and divided them into two
groups. Blood was drawn from all the subjects before the
experiment, four times during the hour-long video, and three
times afterward. Members of one group watched a funny movie
of their choice, but the second group didn't get to see the
film...
Even before the movie began and long
after it ended, the blood chemistry in the group watching
the movie changed. Beta-endorphins, the so called body's own
morphine, rose by 27 percent, and human growth hormone rose
by 87 percent compared to the group that didn't see the
movie.
That's significant, Berk says, because of the role both
those substances play.
'Endorphins are the stuff that make you feel good,' he says.
'It's the stuff that's related to orgasmic response. It's
the runner's high.'
It also slows down the heart rate,
reduces blood pressure and opens air passages.
Human growth hormone 'cranks up at
night, when you and I are asleep,' Berk says. 'It's one of
the hormones that helps re-tune a lot of things. And it
tunes up the immune system."
Thus, his findings indicate there is a
physiological basis for good things that come from
laughing."
Endorphins have already been known to have therapeutic
effects for people suffering from anxiety and depression.
That's why people suffering from anxiety or depression are
often encouraged to exercise.
If laughter really does increase the endorphin level in your
bloodstream, then laughter may actually be good medicine for
agoraphobia.
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