We Human's Require Humor and Laughter-Part 2

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."– Winston Churchill

Is there enough healthy humor in your life? We know that  laughter and play are so common that a lack of humor may be considered abnormal. Also ,it has been  postulated that humor serves as a relief from stress, anxiety, frustration, and/or release from the cares of day-to-day life. This release can be cognitive, as an escape from painful reality, or it can be emotional relief from anxiety fear, anger or embarrassment or interpersonal conflict. Also, it can provide a physical release of nervous energy. And the use of humor for therapeutic purposes dates back to the Greeks who used humor therapy as it was used in the Middle Ages  for the  monarchies  who used  court jesters to improve mood. I’ll bet you could use a court jester especially when talking, on the phone, with a customer service representative from a large corporation regarding an issue.

Contemporary research began investigating the physiology and therapeutic effects of humor and in fact some believe that humor accomplishes the same goal as physical exercise. Some  humor –laughter  research findings are as follows:1. Humor experience leads to arousal of the sympathetic  nervous system 2.Epinephrine  is a precondition for physiological arousal 3. Arousal as measured by heart rate and skin conduction increases with the intensity of the response to something humorous 4. Laughter increases respiration, oxygen exchange, muscular activity, heart rate , stimulates the cardiovascular system , the sympathetic nervous system and the production of   catecholamine 5. Blood-pressure  is also  reduced in a state similar to that resulting from exercise. 6. Increases in systolic and a diastolic blood-pressure  is  related to the intensity and length of the laughter .Blood pressure levels decreased after laughter to below pre-laughter levels.7 There is greater coordination of function between the right and left hemispheres of the brain following laughter. Also, the brain is functioning at its fullest capacity when both right and left hemispheres function simultaneously.7. Laughter  maybe an  antagonist to the classic stress response 8. Humor and laughter significantly increases levels of salivary immunoglobulin A, an important immune system protein that serves as the body’s first defense against respiratory illness.

Alpha and I hit the trail  yesterday. I’m still tapering for my 50 k Way Too Cool next week. Today, I have a continuing education class (cross training), just kidding.

To be Continued