Humor and Laughter Strengthen Your Immune System – The Latest Research

September 26, 2012 By

Humor and Laughter Strengthen Your Immune System – The Latest Research

Your immune system is crucial to sustaining good health. We are all constantly bombarded by viruses, bacteria and other antigens that could seriously harm or even kill us. This threat is present every day of our lives, so anything we do to bolster the effectiveness of this system is clearly important. But can your sense of humor really make your immune system stronger?

It has long been recognized that chronic stress weakens the immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to illness-although short-term, acute stress may boost the immune system. If you find yourself constantly stressed out by your job, a financial crisis, deteriorating health, an unsatisfactory marriage or any other persisting personal problem, your odds of coming down with some kind of health problem increase.

One of the first hints of a solution to the puzzle of how one’s mental or emotional state might influence health came from studies of animals showing that the immune system could actually be conditioned to respond to something that would normally have no impact at all on its functioning. In a now classic study, rats were given a drug known to suppress the functioning of the immune system. The (at the time) commonly used sweetener saccharine was put in the animals’ drinking water and presented simultaneously with the drug, leading to the expected suppression of the immune system.

After a period of time following the cessation of drug-plus-saccharine, the animals’ immune systems fully recovered. At that point, the saccharine alone was presented. Amazingly, the immune system was again suppressed, just as it had been by the drug. A clear conditioning effect had occurred. After simply being paired with the drug in the animals’ experience, the saccharine acquired the ability to suppress the immune system-an effect that never occurs in the absence of such prior pairing. This and other similar findings clearly established that the functioning of a basic health-sustaining mechanism like the immune system can be influenced by our experience and expectations-including, perhaps, our emotions.

By the early 1980s, researchers began to study the impact of humor and laughter on the immune system. The best evidence that humor boosts the immune system comes from studies where immune system measures are taken before and after a particular humorous event-usually a comedy video. Taken as a whole, this research points to a broadly-based immunoenhancement effect. As of 2010, over 40 studies have demonstrated this immune-bolstering effect. The research has shown that numerous different components of the immune system are bolstered by humor and laughter, including Natural Killer (NK) cells, immunoglobulin A (IgA), IgG and IgM, T-cells and B cells. Most studies, however, have focused on NK cells and IgA.

IgA helps protect you against upper respiratory problems, like colds and flu. NK cells seek out tumor cells and destroy them by releasing a toxic substance. They also battle the latest cold- and flu-generating viruses and other foreign organisms. They are another part of the body’s first line of defense and can attack foreign organisms even if they’ve never seen them before. Several studies have shown that watching a humorous video increases both the activity and number of natural killer cells.,b>This is an extraordinary finding. The simple act of watching your favorite comedy show is enough to get increased numbers of these protective NK cells circulating in your body.

The level of free radicals in the body has received a great deal of attention in recent years, since they have been implicated in faster aging, inflammation, cancer and other pathological conditions. Antioxidant vitamins have become very popular because of their presumed ability to reduce the level of free radicals in the body. It is generally believed that anything which helps reduce free radicals in the body is important when it comes to sustaining health in the long run. Amazingly, Japanese researchers have recently shown that watching a comedy video even increases the free radical scavenging capacity in human saliva.

While researchers continue to refine their understanding of the specific aspects of your immune system that are strengthened by humor and laughter, we can now feel confident in treating this benefit to health as being well established. The pain reduction effect of humor and laughter is also now well established.

As is the case with pain, researchers still do not know whether this boosting of the immune system occurs because of the physical act of laughter or the mental/emotional experience of humor itself. This is a very difficult thing to sort out in doing the research. So while you may find some “experts” on humor and health attributing the immunoenhancement effect to humor, and others attributing it to laughter, you can rest assured that they are guessing. The research simply does not tell us one way or the other. From your point of view, of course, this probably doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you know that if you seek out humor on a daily basis, or actively use your sense of humor in everyday life, you will be supporting your own health and wellness.

Finally, it should be noted that there is considerable evidence that your immune system is very responsive to your daily mood. IgA levels and NK cell activity, for example, are elevated on days when you’re in a good mood and lowered on your “down” days. In future articles, we’ll see that this mood-enhancing effect is one key mechanism behind humor’s power to support health and wellness. Humor raises our spirits, generates a momentary experience of joy and happiness and-in the process-leaves us in an upbeat, more positive mood. An elevated immune system just comes along for the ride.

Humor and Laughter Strengthen Your Immune System – The Latest Research

Humor and Laughter Strengthen Your Immune System - The Latest Research

References documenting the research findings discussed here may be found in Dr. McGhee’s latest book, Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience and Health (2010), available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. For additional articles on humor and health, humor in the workplace and children’s humor, or information about his keynotes, see his website at http://LaughterRemedy.com/. Paul is a psychologist and is a pioneer in the field of humor research, having begun to conduct research on the topic in the early 1970s-before it became popular. He is internationally known for his own humor research, and has published 13 books on humor. In addition to frequent television and radio interviews in the USA, he has also appeared on Dutch, German, Swedish, and Swiss television discussing his work, along with numerous European radio stations. His work has been discussed in many international publications, including the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek (Japanese), Geo (German and French), Schweizer Familie (Swiss), Psychologie Heute (German), L’Impatient (French), VG (Norwegian), OGGI (Italian), Der Spiegel (German), Die Welt (German), Die Zeit (German), Intra (German), among others. He now works full time as a professional speaker.

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Humor, Laughter and Pain – The Latest Research

June 3, 2012 By

Humor, Laughter and Pain – The Latest Research

This article marks the first in a series of E-zine articles that will examine the general topic of humor and health. In this series of articles, we will discuss specific ways in which humor contributes to both physical and mental/emotional health and well-being. There have been endless articles in the mass media about whether humor really is good medicine or not (everyone has long heard the statement “Laughter is the best medicine”). Twenty years ago, many of these articles made claims about humor’s impact on health that had no foundation in research. At conferences in recent years, I have even heard physicians make statements about humor and health that have no foundation in research. They made these statements because they had been stated so often in the media that they were assumed to be true. So this series of articles will inform you of just what the research says about what humor and a good belly laugh can do for your health.

For the past 25 years there has been a steadily growing popular movement that I call the “humor and health movement.” The impetus for this movement came from the widespread influence of Norman Cousins’ 1979 book, Anatomy of an Illness. Cousins was suffering from a debilitating form of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis. He was in constant pain as a result of this condition. He and his doctors were aware of the research documenting the fact that negative emotion can increase pain, so they thought, “Why shouldn’t the opposite be true, as well?” If you do things to generate positive emotion in yourself, maybe this will reduce the pain. So he checked himself out of the hospital and into a nearby hotel. With a nurse present full time to monitor his condition, he invited friends over and watched a lot of comedy videos; these included Marx Brothers films, old Candid Camera shows, and other shows that he personally found very funny.

He and his friends laughed a lot while watching these shows, and Cousins noticed right away that he began experiencing less pain during and after viewing them. Someone monitored the time actually spent laughing, and Cousins reported that just 10 minutes of belly laughter would give him two hours of pain-free sleep. This may not sound impressive to you, but if you’re in constant pain, the effect is a striking one.

As the reports of this pain-reducing effect of humor and laughter became more and more widely known (because of the popularity of his book), researchers in the early 1980s began testing this idea in laboratory settings. Over 30 studies have now obtained support for Cousins’ initial observation that humor and laughter reduce pain. Supporting evidence has been obtained in both experimental settings (where pain is actually induced initially, followed by a determination of humor’s ability to reduce that pain) and among individuals suffering from chronic pain from a broad range of conditions. So this is one claim about humor and health you can consider well established.

There is no agreement among researchers, however, on the reason for humor’s pain-reducing effect. Most newspaper articles discussing this topic over the past two decades have matter-of-factly attributed the pain reduction to endorphins-one of the body’s own built-in pain killers. The only problem is that there was never any research documenting this. It was an assumption made by Cousins’ doctors in the 1970s, and people simply kept repeating it as if it were a fact. It should be noted that in the past couple of years there has been one article showing increased endorphin production in response to humor/laughter, so there is some support for this. But there are also a couple of studies that failed to show that humor increases endorphin levels. So the jury is still out on this-even though there is no doubt about the pain-reduction effect.

It should also be noted that we don’t know yet whether this pain-reduction is really due to the mental/emotional experience of humor or to the physical act of laughter. They occur together, obviously, and it is difficult to sort out which is really responsible for the reduced pain. As we shall see in future articles here, this same issue comes up when discussing any other health benefit established for humor.

Another good candidate for explaining humor’s pain-reducing power is the muscle relaxation effect that occurs with laughter. (Certain muscles relax when you laugh whether you want them to or not; that’s why we fall back in our chair when we’re laughing hard. It is also why young children fall down and roll on the floor when they’re laughing hard.) This will be discussed in a future article.

And, of course, humor is very good at mentally distracting us from the source of both physical and emotional pain. There is every reason to thing that the basic neurological pain-channeling mechanisms are influenced by this distracting power of humor.

In the years ahead, we’ll sort out just how humor is able to reduce pain-as well as whether it’s really humor or laughter that is the key. But if you’re someone who suffers from chronic pain, you probably really don’t care why humor does this. The important thing is that it works. Groucho Marx noted this pain-reducing effect of humor long ago. He said, “A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast.”

Future articles in this series will consider the impact of humor on the immune system and specific disease conditions.

Humor, Laughter and Pain – The Latest Research

Humor, Laughter and Pain - The Latest Research

Paul McGhee, PhD, is internationally known for his own humor research, and has published 13 books on humor. References documenting the research findings discussed here may be found in his latest book, Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience and Health (2010), available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. He now works full time as a professional speaker. For additional articles on humor and health, humor in the workplace and children’s humor, or information about his keynotes, see his website at http://LaughterRemedy.com/

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Humor Audio Books: Infectious Laughter in the Air

March 22, 2012 By

Humor Audio Books: Infectious Laughter in the Air

Comedian David Brenner believes that if a person can laugh, he can live and so went on a national tour right after September 11. Humor is our best defense against bad hair days, aggressive pets, obnoxious bosses, traffic jams, even war and a bad economy. If you want humor read to you, then get a humor audiobook, play it and feel yourself float away for a while and then come back to a place where life is funnier, lighter and definitely better.

Most major internet audiobook sites carry humor audiobook titles, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, as well as First-Class-Audiobooks. These sites offer specials and discounts on rentals and purchases with paid memberships, although books may be bought off most sites even without signing up.

To inject more humor into your life, why not check out these titles:

‘Fierce Pajamas: Selections of Humor from an Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker’

This compilation of some of the best and funniest writings from the well-respected publication is edited by David Remnick (editor of The New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize winner) and Henry Finder (editorial director of The New Yorker). And it should be The New Yorker has practically defined comic writing and put it in a sophisticated class of its own. Spoofs and parodies are included in this humor audiobook along with short stories, reviews and some equally hilarious reporting.

‘Worst Noel: Hellish Holiday Tales’

Imagine five compact discs and six hours of some of the darkest humor involving one of the most loved holidays in the world. This humor audiobook features 18 stories from 18 writers, resulting to a diverse mix of dark holiday humor that can help you laugh away some holiday jitters and apprehension. Stories include ‘That Just About Enough Figgy Pudding, Actually’ by Catherine Newman, ”Twas the Bite Before Christmas’ by Stanley Bing, ‘The Jew Who Cooked a Ham for Christmas’ by Neal Pollack and ‘The Gift of the Magi Redux’ by Binnie Kirshenbaum.

‘Boomerang Joy: The Joy that Goes Around, Comes Around’ by Barbara Johnson

Johnson is a popular writer (‘Stick a Geranium in Your hat and Be Happy’) and speaker. This audiobook is a funny devotional and invites women to make small changes in their lives by spreading humor and laughter. More than a tell-a-joke how-to, this audiobook is an inspiring look at how laughter changes our lives for the better. If you’re feeling tired and down, this is the audiobook that will bring joy back to your life.

‘I Feel Bad about My Neck’ by Nora Ephron

What’s a list of humor audiobooks without Nora Ephron? Her brand of disarming sense of humor is evident in some of her most famous work that made it in films: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Heartburn and You’ve Got Mail and it is also aplenty in this audiobook. From her days as an intern at the White House during the Kennedy years to her amorous adventures with Bill Clinton except that he doesn’t know anything about it.

Ephron’s humor is totally absorbing and relatable. Who among us has not experienced the things and situations that she chronicles in her audiobook like bad work days and vain attempts at preserving youth, which is the reason for the title. This audiobook may seem a little of an elegy, but aging is handled well with Ephron’s wry smile. A great gift to oneself or to a good friend, this audiobook is a frank and hilarious look at a certain period in one remarkable woman’s life.

While on the subject of laughter, why not try ‘Drive-By Comedy’, a compilation of original material performed by the writers themselves George Carlin, Amy Sidaris, Paul Dinello, Margaret Cho, among others. If comedy were a whole cow, consider this audiobook as prime cut. Funny, relevant and timely observations of some of the comic industry’s top comedians, this audiobook includes topics like childhood, modern life, love, sex and Flintstone vitamins put together in one of the best selections of original humor available.

Also worth checking: ‘Double Whammy’ by Carl Hiaasen, ‘Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates’ by Tom Robbins ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ by John Kennedy Toole and ‘The Pleasure of My Company’ by Steve Martin, who also narrates. For topnotch entertainment try a humor audiobook today.

Humor Audio Books: Infectious Laughter in the Air

Humor Audio Books: Infectious Laughter in the Air

Enjoy an audiobook anytime. 1000′s of instant audiobook downloads from major publishers. Free comedy book at: http://www.First-Class-Audiobooks.com

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Lighten The Load With Laughter – Hire A Motivational Humorous Speaker To Decrease Employee Stress!

February 17, 2012 By

Lighten The Load With Laughter – Hire A Motivational Humorous Speaker To Decrease Employee Stress!

Imagine this scenario: your job stress has been mounting. Deadlines are fast approaching, you have to hire a motivational humorous speaker for an upcoming meeting, you feel like your boss doesn’t appreciate you, and you’re having personal problems at home. Sometimes the burdens of work and life can feel overwhelming. The good news is that there is a way to lighten your load while trying to hire a motivational humorous speaker. What miracle aid helps you and your employees through transitions, teaches you to manage stress, and helps with an over-all sense of well-being? Humor.

Thus enters the motivational humorous speaker. Many workplace seminars while informative and helpful to your job, can be dry, boring and feel like a waste of your valuable, and sometimes scarce, time. Using humor, the motivational humorous speaker teaches important skills with humor, but also teaches ways to incorporate humor into your personal and work life, as well. Motivational humorous speakers provide the opportunity to learn, relax and release in a humorous atmosphere. Rather than simply speaking before a group on a specific topic, the motivational humorous speaker is able to incorporate humor into the lesson and provide insight through the joys of laughter.

Many challenges can be conquered with the use of humor and by hiring a motivational humorous speaker. What better way to spend the day than learning an important message through humor and laughter? There are links between job stress and overall happiness. Stress affects a person’s health as well as job performance. A motivational humorous speaker can lighten the worker’s load in two ways: by increasing their immediate happiness as well as improving job satisfaction. When a motivational speaker uses humor to enlighten they can teach problem solving skills. Using humor in a presentation can also teach workers to use it on their own in the future–whether for public speaking, job performance, relations with other workers, or stress release. Humor can also be used as a catalyst to change, easing the burdens of transition. Humor has mental, physically and social benefits. Laughter has been found to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and enhance the immune system. Humor can be useful in managing stress as well as aiding in conflict resolution, team building and employee motivation. The motivational humorous speaker teaches through humor–thus lightening your load–one laugh at a time.

Lighten The Load With Laughter – Hire A Motivational Humorous Speaker To Decrease Employee Stress!

Lighten The Load With Laughter - Hire A Motivational Humorous Speaker To Decrease Employee Stress!

Doug Dvorak is the CEO of DMG Inc., a worldwide organization that assists clients with productivity training, corporate humor and workshops, as well as other aspects of sales and marketing management. Mr. Dvorak’s clients are characterized as Fortune 1000 companies, small to medium businesses, civic organizations and service businesses. Mr. Dvorak has earned an international reputation for his powerful educational methods and motivational techniques, as well as his experience in all levels of business, corporate education and success training. http://www.dougdvorak.com

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My Favorite Anxiety Ending Affirmation:

I am so happy and grateful now that I am living an anxiety and panic free life and am radiating with confidence!

How to Use Power Affirmations

Anxiety Help

What is the most effective way to use Power Affirmations? Here are a few suggestions.

Pick one or two affirmations and begin using them immediately. Do not wait until you create the perfect affirmations for your specific situation before you start using them. The future is now. Procrastination is the killer of success. Immediate action creates momentum. Repetition of positive thought sustains it. Do not base your choice by whether or not you already believe the affirmation or if the belief seems possible to you at this time. Repeating the power affirmations with emotional intensity and a feeling of certainty will eventually install the beliefs in your subconscious mind. At the very least, pick a generic affirmation like Every day in every way I am getting better and better. Then you can always choose or create other power affirmations later after you set specific goals. Resolve right now to start using affirmations within the next 60 minutes.

Write the power affirmation at least 10-20 times per day. For best results, write it down 10-20 times as soon as you arise and 10-20 times before you go to bed. This allows you to set your direction before the day starts and plant the seed in your subconscious mind before you go to sleep. If you do this consistently, you will naturally find this thought re-occurring in your mind several times per day. You will begin to notice the power affirmations shaping your other thoughts through the course of the day. As the power affirmations create more and more similar thoughts, you will create a direction and build momentum towards the desired results.

After you write the affirmation 10-20 times, repeat it aloud in front of a mirror 5-10 times. Anxiety Help is a process so repeating the affirmations aloud further installs the beliefs into your subconscious mind. It is very important to repeatedly both write and audibly state your affirmations for maximum effectiveness.

As you write and audibly repeat them, feel the emotional power of the affirmations in your body. Visualize yourself as having already created this result in your life. Feel the way you would feel if you already had this result in your life. Hear the things you will hear when this affirmation becomes an everyday reality. Breathe the way you would breathe if this affirmation were already true. Move your body as if this were already a conditioned belief.

Now let your positive thoughts of power and certainty guide your actions. Live consciously. Take complete control of your own mind rather than passively allowing the influences in the media control it for you.

Does this type of conditioning take time and effort? Absolute , on a daily basis. There is no something for nothing. This is where most people fail. They do not follow through with these steps every day for a long period of time. They get inspired for a few days after hearing a motivational speaker or after reading a book. Then, after the motivational high wears off, they fall back into their old habits. Or they get so busy that this is an easy item to ignore.

Event training through short seminars, is necessary and great. But Process Training, training that guides your every day habits, is the real key to sustained results. Process Training is achieved through sustained exposure to the learning material over a prolonged period of time. And it requires constant review and correction until the skill is installed as a subconscious habit (like how you learn to drive a car). Most people who think they can get all the information they need by attending a couple of seminars or listening to a best selling program one time will usually be disappointed. The information just goes by too fast to allow it to really soak in.

Why do you think we see the same commercials over and over again? Or hear the same slogan? It is because that advertisers know if they can get our attention for 30 seconds (or less), to watch the same commercial multiple times over a period of days, weeks, months, years, they know they can sell us billions of dollars of merchandise. Is it not time that you used the exact same technique to condition your mind on purpose? Take control of your mind and get anxiety help.

So, listening to motivational speakers on audio tape on a regular basis. Daily is one effective way to add process training to your life, however, many of the thoughts they communicate race by without having a chance to take root in either your conscious or subconscious mind. And there is often a lot of fluff just to get to the main points that will really change your life. It is much more difficult to take advantage of the power of repetition which is crucial to create long term results.

The Power of Power Affirmations

My Power Affirmations work whether I believe in them or not. I create new Power Affirmations for myself everyday. I repeat my Power Affirmations everyday with emotional intensity, certainty, and faith. My Power Affirmations allow me to consistently tap into the unlimited power of my subconscious mind. My Power Affirmations are now creating thought habits that will to guide me to my desired objectives easily and effortlessly. The more I repeat my Power Affirmations with a feeling of certainty, the more accessible these power beliefs are to me when I need them. I know that the repetition of affirmations is the easiest and primary method of voluntarily creating the emotion of faith. So I feed my subconscious mind thoughts of faith by repeating my power affirmations every day with emotion and physical energy. My thoughts are creative. My Power Affirmations are now creating the reality I desire. My Power Affirmations positively influence my subconscious mind while I sleep. My imagination now creates whatever I believe and conceive. I now have all the resources I need to achieve my goals easily and effortlessly. Every day in every way I am getting better and better. I set definite goals and create new Power Affirmations(TM) to achieve them quickly and easily. Today I am using 100 percent of my minds capacity. I now have easy access to the information in my subconscious. All subconscious information is being revealed to me now. What I imagine I can do I can do. I receive wisdom and knowledge from God every moment of my life. I am now making amazing progress towards all of my goals. My subconscious mind is now revealing everything I need to know to create and fulfill my mission and purpose in life. I am consciously aware of my beliefs. I only hold onto beliefs that support me. I now see and feel my goals as already accomplished. Using my Power Affirmations, I expand the powers of my subconscious mind everyday. Whatever I conceive and believe I can achieve. I create my own luck everyday. I achieve my goals with joy and laughter. I visualize what I want to be and act as if I am already what I visualize. Through consistently repeating my Power Affirmations, I can now create any reality that I desire and get anxiety help. My Power Affirmations are the expression of my beliefs and convictions. The stronger my convictions, the more powerful their effect on my subconscious mind to bring about the results I desire. My Power Affirmations are now creating habitual thought patterns of success, positive thinking, and positive living. Comment on this blog to let me know how your affirmations produced anxiety help in your life. These affirmations are the corner stone to many anxiety sufferers recovery.

http://www.anxietyended.com

January 7, 2012 By

Learn how others are receiving “Anxiety Help” [http://www.anxietyended.com] learn more about me and visit our blog at http://www.anxietyended.com/blog

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