By James N. Dillard, M.D.
(12/10/2009) “I can’t find a cause for your illness,” the doctor said. “Frankly, I think it’s due to drinking.”
“In that case,” replied his patient, “I’ll come back when you are sober.”
It may be tough to feel lighthearted at this time of year. It’s turned wet and cold. We have two wars going on. Unemployment is still above 10 percent, and real health care reform seems a distant dream.
Kids get this too. Other kids can be mean, Mommy and Daddy have fights, and we can’t believe that the dog can actually die. Sometimes things don’t work out like we planned.
There is tremendous potential for a legitimate sense of anxiety, sorrow, anger, and loss in the world. But it’s not so much that life offers these tough experiences as it is how we react to them. They don’t have to ruin your day, every day.
A priest, a rabbi, a doctor, a lawyer, and a duck walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Hey, what is this, some kind of a joke?”
Finding the funny side of things might be more important to your health than you think. Researchers at the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center have shown that a lack of humor contributes to heart disease.
The scientists studied 300 subjects; some had heart disease and some didn’t. On testing for a natural sense of humor, the people with heart disease generally laughed less and were less likely to recognize humor or use it in uncomfortable situations.
Lee Berk, a professor at Loma Linda University in California, has shown that laughter strengthens the immune system and reduces damaging stress hormones. These are significant physical changes that can have a real effect on your medical status.
This field is called psychoneuroimmunology. It is the study of how your emotional state affects your nervous system and your immune system. We know that people who are stressed out make their health conditions worse, raise their blood pressure and heart rate, suppress their immune systems, impair memory and thinking, and increase the risk of heart attacks. So we all need to meditate, right?
Not necessarily. In the words of a comic guru, “For those who wish to reach enlightenment — lighten up!” Maybe we all need to. Did you hear about the paranoid dyslexic? He always thought he was following someone. What do you call a lawyer who has gone bad? Senator.
In 1979 the journalist Norman Cousins wrote a wonderful book called “Anatomy of an Illness.” In it he tells how he put his painful ankylosing spondylitis, a life-threatening disease of the joints and connective tissue, into remission by making himself laugh all day. Cousins had funny movies brought into his hospital room. He found that a big belly laugh would allow him two hours of painless sleep.
But humor is highly personal. What makes me laugh doesn’t necessarily make you laugh. You need to find what tickles your funny bone, and then go crazy with it. According to James Taylor, “The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time.” What better way could there be than with finding the funny?
• Figure out what makes you really laugh — not just smile or giggle. The bigger the belly laugh, the more therapeutic.
• Make a list of your favorite comedians, and get their CDs.
• Rent fun movies, record TV comedy shows, and order the funniest Netflix. Listen to silly shows in the car, like NPR’s “Car Talk.” Find a way to have a good laugh every day.
• If comedy clubs work for you, going to one UpIsland or in the city could make for a good date night.
• Seek out funny people you know and spend time with them. They are out there, we all know some. Avoid contagiously stiff or sour folks if you can.
• Stay away from the current trend toward gratuitously mean humor. It doesn’t usually get you that healthy belly laugh, and it darkens your heart.
• Have a good laugh at yourself from time to time. You are probably more worthy of mockery than you think. Poke fun at your own quirks. The rest of us were thinking these things about you anyway, so we’ll enjoy it.
Groucho Marx once said that “a clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast.” How can you tell that a dog really is man’s best friend? Put your dog and your spouse in the trunk of the car and drive around for a while. Then open the trunk and see who is the happiest to see you.
Laughter is healing. It can go a long way. It might help your relationships too. As the comedian Victor Borge said, “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” Get that other person to laugh and everything gets better.
A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says, “A beer please, and one for the road.”
The life around you is actually funnier than you might think, and laughter truly is the best medicine. Look for it and enjoy.