Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Laughter is the best medicine

I went looking for the source of the quote and Googled the text to find over 3 milllion web pages use that quote. Possibly the most extraordinary case of its health benefits is on the front page of (http://www.happinessandlaughter.com/).

"Norman Cousins (1915 to 1990), longtime editor of the Saturday Review, global peacemaker, receiver of hundreds of awards including the UN Peace Medal and nearly fifty honorary doctorate degrees, overcame a life threatening disease and a massive coronary, each time using his own nutritional and emotional support protocol.

Cousin's seminal book "Anatomy of an Illness" details his healing journey overcoming ankylosing spondylitis (a degenerative disease causing the breakdown of collagen). Given up to die within a few months in 1965, almost completely paralyzed, Cousins checked out of the hospital, moved into a hotel room and began taking extremely high doses of vitamin C while exposing himself to a continuous stream of humorous films and similar "laughing matter". His condition steadily improved and Cousins regained the use of his limbs until he was able to return to his full-time job at the Saturday Review."

The site also has a view video jokes on the left hand side bar to get started on a healthy and fun way to better physical and mental health.

As with everything there's a pathological version.
http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Abstract/1982/02000/Pathological_Laughter__A_Review_of_the_Literature.1.aspx

For the majority of people though humour is a great tool.

I'm unable to find the author of the quote. Its such a simple bit of wisdom that perhaps it was said by lots of people isolated from each other in time and geography such that no single person could be attribute it. Or my internet searching skills are lacking this evening.

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We It comes in part from an appreciation that no one can truly sign their own work. Everything is many influences coming together to the one moment where a work exists. The other is a begrudging acceptance that my work was never my own. There is another consciousness or non-corporeal entity that helps and harms me in everything I do. I am not I because of this force or entity. I am "we"