We've all heard the phrase, "Laughter is the best medicine". Readers Digest has been telling us this for years, but until recently there was no real evidence to back up the claim. This book discusses the exciting findings scientists have obtained over the past 25 years for how your sense of humor supports good physical and mental health. A separate chapter discusses humor and the brain. The first studies of humor and health demonstrated humor's ability to strengthen the immune system, reduce pain and reduce levels of stress hormones circulating in the body. These general health-promoting benefits led researchers to study the impact of humor and laughter on specific diseases. This exciting new work has now shown health benefits of humor in connection with coronary heart disease, asthma, COPD, arthritis, certain allergies and diabetes. The two cerebral hemispheres of the brain are shown to play different roles in our understanding and enjoyment of humor. Also, specific dopamine-based pleasure centers in the brain have now been identified which account for the good feeling that results from humor and a good belly laugh. The key to understanding humor's contribution to health and wellness is its ability to both build more positive emotion into your life and reduce feelings of anger, anxiety and depression. Humor helps provide the emotional resilience needed to meet the challenges presented by steadily increasing stress in our personal and work lives. It is a powerful tool for coping with any form of life stress, and a means of sustaining a positive, optimistic attitude toward life. Similarly, humor plays a key role in generating a happy marriage and greater happiness and life satisfaction in general. And it's never too late to improve your sense of humor. You can learn to use humor to cope and get these benefits into your own life.

Humor

THE LIGHTER PATH TO RESILIENCE AND HEALTHBy Paul McGhee

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Paul McGhee, PhD
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-6069-5

Contents

Preface.....................................................................................................xiiiIntroduction: Humor and Positive Psychology.................................................................xviiThe Core Character Strengths and Virtues....................................................................xixImportance of Positive Emotion in Daily Life................................................................xxiiResilience..................................................................................................xxvPositive Emotion and Life Satisfaction/Happiness............................................................xxxChapter 1. Humor and Resilience.............................................................................1Preliminary Chapter Summary.................................................................................3Your Sense of Humor: The Secret Ingredient for Making Lemonade..............................................8The Mounting Stress of Everyday Life........................................................................12The Growing Need for Emotional Resilience...................................................................16Does Stress Happen to You? Or Do You Create it?.............................................................22Evidence that Humor Builds Resilience and Helps You Cope....................................................27Research on Positive Emotion in General.....................................................................90How Does Humor Help You Cope?...............................................................................93Which is More Important, Humor or Laughter?.................................................................117Again, Emotional Resilience is the Key to Good Mental Health................................................118Mental Health...............................................................................................118Are You Born with/without a Sense of Humor? Can it be Developed as an Adult?................................120Use of Humor by Therapists..................................................................................126Humor and Spirituality......................................................................................132Humor and Happiness/Life Satisfaction.......................................................................134Chapter 2. Humor and Physical Health........................................................................141Preliminary Chapter Summary.................................................................................142The Popular and Academic Humor and Health Movements: Origins and Influences.................................144The First Wave: General Health-Promoting Effects of Humor and Laughter......................................168The Second Wave: Impact of Humor and Laughter on Specific Diseases..........................................198Do People with a Good Sense of Humor Get Sick Less Often?...................................................230The Humor-in-Hospitals Movement.............................................................................236Chapter 3. Humor and the Brain..............................................................................259Preliminary Chapter Summary.................................................................................260Understanding Humor: Will the Funny Hemisphere Please Light Up?.............................................267The Functional and Structural Basis for the Right Brain's Special Role in Complex Humor.....................305Enjoying Humor: Why it Feels so Good........................................................................309References..................................................................................................315

Chapter One

Humor and Resilience

"If it weren't for the brief respite we give the world with our foolishness, the world would see mass suicide in numbers that compare favorably with the death rate of the lemmings." (Groucho Marx)

"If I had no sense of humor, I should long ago have committed suicide." (Mohandas K. Gandhi)

If you randomly select 100 people on the street and ask them if it's important to have a good sense of humor, most will say yes without hesitation. They would recognize that humor helps get through the tough times ("If I didn't laugh, I'd cry!"). But what appears to be an obviously important set of skills for getting through our daily life has not always been considered important enough for researchers to study in a "serious" fashion. As noted in Chapter 2, it was not until the 1980s that psychologists and others began to systematically look at the ways in which humor contributes to both physical and emotional health and well being.

Imagine for a moment that you are an alien from another planet (perhaps you are a logic-oriented Vulcan, like Spock in the old television series, Star Trek). You arrive on Earth and observe a most bizarre behavior in humans. They see or say something incongruous or otherwise unusual/unexpected and then go through a puzzling sequence of behaviors. Major facial muscles contract and pull upward and to the side (producing what they call a "smile"), their mouth opens up and their diaphragm and stomach muscles start a series of contractions which produce a strange repetitive sound-a kind of "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" that sometimes goes on and on to the point where they have trouble standing up. Their body seems to be out of control with involuntary spasms. Sometimes they hold their sides when they've been doing this for several minutes. Surely, it must be very painful ... and yet they look so happy. But many of them do have tears coming out of their eyes, so they must be very sad when they do this.

You continue to watch more closely, and you notice that they seem to be gasping for air. This odd breathing pattern causes them to push out as much air as possible from their lungs before taking a deep breath and starting the whole process all over again. You discover that their heart is also racing and their blood pressure jumps much higher. Their faces are pinker because of the increased blood flow to their cheeks. Many of them slump over in their chairs; or if they're standing up, it looks like they're about to fall over. In fact, you notice that the young humans really do fall down on the floor while they're doing this ... they can't stand up! Some are rolling on the floor. Again, it all looks so painful, and yet they look so happy.

When the humans explain that this is called laughter, and that they can't help themselves, you become all the more concerned about its impact on their well being. They finally explain why they're laughing and you become all the more puzzled. They laugh at things that are just absurd and make no sense. As an alien who does not have the strong drive to play (physically or mentally) as part of your biological heritage, you never manage to understand either humor or laughter, no matter how often humans explain it. And you would never be convinced that this strange behavior might be good for you or help you cope with stressful times.

Even if you are someone who has always been...