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Laugh your way to better health

Sarah Schmelling
for USA TODAY Modern Woman
Research shows that humor improves heart health by making our blood vessels more pliable, reducing the risk of things like heart attacks.

Harry Potter ran into many fearsome creatures in his time, but one required a defense we all have in our arsenal. The boggart in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is a shape-shifter. It assumes the likeness of whatever frightens characters the most.

Clearly, that would be a formidable foe in real life, but in Harry’s world, it’s an easy one to defeat: The characters only have to laugh to break the spell. The lesson from Harry? By looking at your greatest fear in a way that makes you laugh, you can overcome it.

Of course, you don’t have to be a wizard to reap these benefits. Through new research, a growing therapeutic humor movement and engaging books on the science of this wonderful tool, we’re learning that humor and the laughter that comes with it can improve our health, relieve stress, help us socially, change our outlook and, in turn, change our lives.

“It’s shocking how many health benefits there are to humor,” says Scott Weems, a cognitive neuro-scientist and author of “Ha! The Science of When We Laugh and Why.”

Research, he says, shows that humor improves heart health by making our blood vessels more pliable, reducing the risk of things like heart attacks. He also says it promotes the production of natural protective cells and other antibodies that fight diseases such as cancer.

There are important psychological benefits as well. “If you watch a stand-up routine before taking an IQ test, you’ll do better than if you watched a drama or documentary,” Weems says. “You will also be better at problem-solving and insight tasks.”

Why is this? Weems says it’s because humor acts as exercise for the brain, getting it ready for more difficult tasks to come. “Our bodies need exercise, both physically and mentally,” he says. “And humor is a great way to do that.”

Nira Berry, an inspirational speaker and “happiness coach” based in Maryland, is an enthusiast for therapeutic humor. While going through chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2001, she began looking for a way to feel better during the treatment and came across research on the benefits of laughter. She found that adding more laughter to her life helped — so much so that she traveled to Switzerland to receive training in “laughter yoga” by the practice’s founder, Dr. Madan Kataria.

Today, Berry runs laughter yoga workshops and team-building programs, serves as a keynote speaker at conferences, teaches a “laugh your way to happiness” course at a community college and stars in a DVD called “Laugh Off Stress.” “It really just became my mission to help people find fulfillment and happiness through laughter,” she says.

Berry believes in laughter as a tool for feeling better and for relieving stress, promoting connections and improving focus. She once had a client who desperately wanted to go to college but couldn’t pass the math class to get in. While she did well in the course, she would panic during tests. Berry suggested that her client sit in her car before tests and laugh for 10 minutes.

“Sure enough, she started getting A’s in the class, and she went on to graduate (from college),” she says. “Laughter helps you focus. It’s the quickest way to relaxation.”

Just laughing — and here’s the key, even if it’s fake — can help you feel better in most situations, Berry believes. She says that if you can laugh for 10 minutes every morning, it will help you throughout the day. “And if you can do nothing else, smile,” she adds.

And know that you don’t have to be funny to enjoy the perks of humor.

“I think the most promising aspect of humor research is that all the benefits we get from comedy — greater health, higher pain tolerance, improved intelligence and problem-solving ability — come from exposure, not telling jokes,” Weems says. “This means we don’t need to be funny to make humor an important part of our lives.”

“That said,” he adds, “it never hurts to always have a good joke in your back pocket, just in case.”

Find more great articles like this in Modern Woman magazine, on newsstands now through Nov. 28.
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