{"id":3710,"date":"2010-01-08T12:29:23","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T17:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=3710"},"modified":"2017-06-22T10:45:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T15:45:01","slug":"laughter-the-best-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2010\/01\/08\/laughter-the-best-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughter, the best medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever just needed to laugh?<\/p>\n

I have, and I seem to need laughter more and more every day. With people around me losing their jobs, health and even lives, laughter is one of the few things that helps me make it through each day. \u00a0I feel happier and more energized when I laugh.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s good for me.<\/p>\n

Apparently science is starting to think the same way.<\/p>\n

Back in the 1970s, a regular guy named Norman Cousins<\/a> was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.\u00a0 With his doctor\u2019s supervision and permission, he treated himself with humorous videos and shows, and his disease went into remission.\u00a0 He wrote a book, \u201cAnatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient,\u201d<\/a> and science noticed.<\/p>\n

Since then there have been multiple studies related to laughter<\/a>.\u00a0 One study of 20 high-risk diabetes patients found that watching 30 minutes of something funny resulted in lower stress, higher HDL, or good cholesterol, levels and lower risk of cardiovascular disease.\u00a0 Another study discovered that laughter could prevent a heart attack.<\/p>\n

Not only can laughter make blood vessels work well, increase hope and lower stress, but it can also help you enjoy classes.\u00a0 A 2005 study at Ohio University\u2019s Zanesville campus<\/a> incorporated humor into an online psychology class and used Blackboard, an online system similar to Angel, to tally academic performance.\u00a0 When the results were compared to another online section of the class without the humor, researchers found more student involvement in the humorous section.<\/p>\n

So what should we do with all this newfound information?<\/p>\n

The short answer: laugh more.\u00a0 Read a comic strip.\u00a0 Watch a funny movie.\u00a0 Tell a joke, even a bad joke.\u00a0 Find what\u2019s funny in every situation and laugh about it.\u00a0 Personally, I\u2019m going to visit my favorite humor sites online.<\/p>\n

I know there\u2019s a war going on.\u00a0 I know the economy is recovering from a recession.\u00a0 I know life is hard for everyone going to school and trying to get a job.\u00a0 However, if I don\u2019t find something to laugh about, I won\u2019t be able to make it through today, let alone the week or the quarter.\u00a0 If you\u2019re with me, crack a smile.\u00a0 Even better, find a reason to laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever just needed to laugh? I have, and I seem to need laughter more and more every day. With people around me losing their jobs, health and even lives, laughter is one of the few things that helps me make it through each day. \u00a0I feel happier and more energized when I laugh.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1400,837,835,1976,836],"class_list":["post-3710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-health","tag-humor","tag-laughter","tag-meagan-ewton","tag-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-XQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3746,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions\/3746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}