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The benefit of laughter on our wellbeing has been referenced throughout history from biblical timesto today.

In 1964 Norman Cousins, an Americanpolitical journalist, author, professor and worldpeace advocate, was given 6 months to live.He was diagnosed suddenly with life-threatening ankylosing spondylitis, a painful,degenerative disease of the spine. Cousins,who was in constant agony and quicklysuccumbing to paralysis, checked himself outof the hospital, which in his view "was noplace for sick people" and into a hotel whereunder the supervision of a doctor, he begantaking mega doses of Vitamin C punctuated

by a regimen of intense bellylaughter.

In his book ‘Anatomy of anIllness’ he said that 10 minutes

of belly laughter gave him 2hours of undisturbed sleep.

He died in 1990 aged 75,26 years after his

diagnosis. Cousins hassince become known as the

father of modern laughter therapy.

Meanwhile in 1995 in Bombay (now Mumbai),a Dr Madon Kataria read about Cousins anddecided to do an experiment. He gathered 5people in a public park and started to laugh.This group grew and while researching thebenefits of laughter, he was amazed by the

number of studies showing profoundphysiological and psychological benefits oflaughter. And so began Laughter Yoga whichcombines laughing exercises and yogabreathing techniques (pranayama). TodayLaughter Yoga has spread to 72 countries.The first Sunday inMay has sincebecome WorldLaughterDay .

In 1998 Robin Williams playedPatch Adams in the movie of thesame name. Adams believed increating compassionateconnections with patients andthat laughter was ‘essential tophysical and emotional health’.Today he continues to build ‘freehospitals ’ that provide free healthcare, without excluding anycomplementary medicine.

These are examples of howlaughter is influencing the wellbeing of theworld today and many studies have beendone as to the effectiveness of laughter as aform of treatment. They have proved thatlaughter with a positive outlook have givenpatients a better quality of life and helped to

promote better mental and physical health.Laughter has an immediate effect on the body

– the body releases natural endorphins whichcan help to relieve physical pain, increasesantibody-producing cells, enhances theeffectiveness of T-cells which boosts theimmune system and also leads to a reductionin the stress hormones cortisol andepinephrine.

Remember the saying ‘if you put your mind toit, you can accomplish anything’? If we put our

mind into feeling low, we are feeding thatfeeling which can result in illness. The morethe mind focuses on the illness the lower thequality of life and the greater chance ofdepression – this person can become trappedin perpetual physical and mental misery.When a person is diagnosed with a terminalillness or disease it can be easy to focus onthat illness and the resulting death thatfollows. This person may cut themselves offand retreat into a very lonely and unpleasantworld.

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The population of England in 2012 wasalmost 54 million. In the same year 50 millionprescription items were dispensed for anti-depressant drugs costing £211 million. Thetotal number of prescription items dispensedin England was 1000.5 million = 18.7 perperson (a rise of 62.2% since 2002). The totalcost of these items was £8.5 billion = £159.33per person (hscic.gov.uk ). The NHS spent£106 billion overall.

With all the recent news about tax avoidanceperhaps the focus should be more on whatcan be done about health avoidance!?

Of course, if you are the supplier of thesedrugs then a society full of illness and miseryis your best friend – and only 4 million more

people to go and that will mean theequivalent of every person in England takinganti-depressants. Globally, the 11 major drugcompanies made a net profit of £53 billion in2012.

So now we can see that illness costs £billionsand laughter costs £0 (unless you include an

Alan Carr DVD for £6.99).

However, there are many examples of howsome people upon hearing terminal news

have embraced all things positive. Their

focus is on positive thinking, happiness andlaughter and together with close family andfriends who share this positivity, they havebrought about what has been described as amiracle.

Many cancer survivors have something incommon – after they are diagnosed… theystart to ‘live’ their lives each day as though itmight be their last. They start to focus on thehere and now. They let things go and theydon’t stress about tomorrow.

Humans are ‘hard wired’ to be on guard.Many millennia ago, we were either thehunter or the hunted. This constant fear ofbeing eaten is still with us today although thehungry animal has been replaced with all the

stresses of a modern world, like terrorism forexample.

The feeling of fear itself is about events in thefuture that may or may not happen, whichcauses stress and anxiety. This can manifestas illness because a person is ‘worrying toomuch’; ‘I am really worried’. The past iswhere regret and depression exists; ‘if only Ihad done…’; ‘I wish things could have beenbetter’. The present is where wellbeing andpeace exists, where natural laughter and true

happiness lies.Is laughter the best medicine? I think it’s way up there with the best and it would be hard to proveotherwise.

Gary Lloyd

www.cancerresearchuk.org www.mariecurie.org.uk uk.movember.com/