Laughter is the Best Medicine

Healing with hands and hilarity

You know the old maxim about laughter, right? That it's the
best medicine?

Well, I've long believed that within this old "wives tale"
there lay embedded a kernel of truth. More like a golden
nugget of truth. I'd even go so far as to say that laughter
(or in a broader sense, the positive or light-hearted
outlook that makes laughter possible in the face of serious
disease) is in many cases at least as important to health
and resiliency as actual treatment. In fact, the idea that
outlook and mood are related to health is one of the central
principles of alternative medicine.

Research in the past has strongly suggested a link between
laughter and healing, but a new study hopes to prove (or
disprove) this correlation once and for all. According to a
recent Associated Press article, the National Cancer
Institute has ponied up 2 million dollars in grant money for
a three-pronged, 5-year study of 282 juvenile patients who
are continuing to battle leukemia and other cancers after
stem cell transplants. The research will take place at 4
different children's hospitals in both the U.S. and Canada.

In addition to "humor therapy," segments of the study group
will also test the healing power of massage therapy and a
combination of both humor and massage - but only as they add
to traditional drug-based therapy.

You know how I feel about a lot of today's cancer drugs; if
you ask me, they're sometimes worse than the disease. Don't
get me wrong, some drugs have their place, but as a whole, I
believe we're far too quick to put all of our eggs in the
patent medicine "basket" - especially when it comes to
cancer treatment. In my opinion, what this study needs to be
truly significant is a control group treated with
alternative or natural therapies only. But since this kind
of treatment is now considered a CRIME in some places -
remember the Texas man brought up on charges for treating
his son with natural cancer-fighters (Daily Dose, 12/16/03) -
such research may not even be possible.

Even as flawed as it is, I'm anxious to see what the results
of this 5-year study will be. I'm betting it'll prove that
things like laughter and touch (specifically, how they
relate to mood and attitude) really DO make a therapeutic
difference in seriously ill patients…

But if the study doesn't prove this, it'll only be because
all those toxic drugs got in the way of the REAL healing our
bodies and minds are capable of. 

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Beating stress and anxiety - literally

Back in the 80s (or early 90s), a book called Iron John made
the U.S. bestseller list for more than a year. Although I
didn't read it, the book was supposedly about a crisis in
modern masculinity. I only remember this because of the
flurry of ridiculous new-age activity in the arena of
identifying and recovering "maleness" that followed in this
book's aftermath. And as I recall, one activity seemed to be
fairly universally identified within this "mini-movement" as
therapeutic for men…

Drumming.

Dismiss this if you will (I did - who'd consider such a
thing seriously?), but now there's evidence that those new-
age wackos with a sexual identity crisis may actually have
been onto something - but perhaps not exactly what they
thought. According to a recent study, frequent sessions
spent pounding on drums are dramatically effective in
relieving on-the-job stress and burnout, especially among
workers in the healthcare field, an industry with especially
high turnover rates.

In fact, just 6 weeks' worth of hour-a-week sessions beating
the skins was touted with a significantly reduced rate of
attrition at one facility involved in the test - which
experienced 49 fewer employee resignations (both men and
women, of all employment strata) during the study year than
in the previous year. Net savings: Nearly HALF A MILLION
DOLLARS in training expenses for new hires to replace those
who quit because of stress and burnout.  The test's subjects
also reported a 62% improvement in mood over this same time
period. Remarkable!

If there's any truth to this evidence at all, it looks like
banging a drum (or even an upside down bucket) might be
worth a try if you're stressed out…

No matter how silly it might feel. But don't forget to wear
earplugs.