The Meaning of “Laughter: The Best Medicine”

They say laughter is the best medicine, but why does this saying persist? Because it’s true. Because even though tears are necessary for some healing, laughter is what helps real growth take root. Laughter affects our minds and hearts, and these both affect our bodies.

Mentally, laughter improves our thinking patterns. It frees us to appreciate the little moments in life, and helps us to focus on solutions rather than problems.

Emotionally, laughter frees us from burden, bit by small bit. Instead of only feeling good when good things happen, laughter helps happiness become our default. It strengthens our relationships with ourselves, and with others.

Physically, laughter reduces tension (which helps us relax and sleep better) and charges our immune systems (which helps us resist disease). It helps us find the joy and hope required to heal and increases daily health.

How To Find More Laughter In Your Life

Laughter is the best medicine, and it’s also a cycle. People who are happy in life laugh more, and conversely, those who laugh become happier! It’s a wonderful cycle; you just need to set it in motion. By learning to laugh-to laugh a lot or even a little more than you do-you can live a fuller, healthier life. Here are three simple steps you can take to get there.

1. The Journey Of Laughter And Health Begins With Smile

A smile is the first step to laughter. Yes smiles are small, but they have the tendency to grow and grow. Make an effort to smile more throughout your day. If you’re feeling in a down mood, force yourself to smile as you walk around rather than frowning or looking glum. You’ll be amazed at how it ’soaks in’ so to speak. You’ll find that as you look at the world outside of you with a pleasant look on your face, you’ll start looking inside yourself more positively, too. Your whole mood will slowly improve. Keep it up and you’ll be laughing soon enough!

2. Laughter Is The Best Medicine, And Medicine Doesn’t Come TO You

If you need more laughter, seek it out, both in people and in activities. Spend time with people you care about and who make you happy, and with people who laugh and make others laugh. Do things laugh with others and watch how your laughter rubs off on each other.

Take note of the things that make you laugh (or at least smile for starters) and incorporate them into your day. This may be intentionally funny things (like comedy films or joke books) or just silly things (like funny pictures of animals or trying on ugly hats at the mall). No smile is too small, so seek them out and help them grow!

3. Lighten Up: Focus On The Positive

Laughter and health are connected because laughter lets us increase the positive feelings, which forces negative feelings to get smaller. You cannot feel angry, disheartened, anxious, guilty, or resentful yet feel humor at the same time!

One of the best ways to help increase laughter (and to help its magic medicine work) is to get away from the thoughts that prevent laughter. Write down things you are grateful for, take steps to alleviate stress, take care of your mind and your body, and do things that make you feel good about yourself and your skills.

Make room for laughter, and health (mental, emotional, and even physical) will have room to thrive. And of course, the healthier you are, the more you will laugh. You’ll truly see why laughter is the best medicine, and you’ll want to spread the laughter to others.

Laughter And Health: Is Laughter Really The Best Medicine?

This old saying lasts from generation to generation, but is there any truth to it? Of course, we all know that there is. Put simply, laughter makes us feel better. It cheers up a bad day, lightens up serious situations, helps us bond with others, and lets us see the positive in not-so-fun situations. But does laughter have any physical health benefits? Surprisingly enough, this has been researched, and YES, it does!

The connections between laughter and health are many. From boosting our immune systems, which avoids illness, to helping us heal from injuries and illnesses that we have, laughter and health have a lot of connections. Here are 10 interesting ways that laughter really is the best medicine (or if not the best, it at least helps a little).

Laughter fights stress. It’s actually been proven scientifically that laughter reduces your stress hormones and increases the hormones that calm you down and make you feel good.

Laughter builds immunity. Some of these same hormones strengthen your immune system. See? Happy people may get sick less because they’re happy!

Laughter strengthens your diaphragm. Big, “belly laughs” utilize your diaphragm, which is an important muscle that helps you breathe deeply.

Laughter benefits sleep. By reducing stress (both physically and mentally), laughter helps your body and mind unwind, so it’s easier to fall asleep, and you’ll sleep better.

Laughter is cardiovascular? It’s true! Every little bit helps. The more you laugh, the more of a little workout your heart gets. So laughter makes your heart happy, too!

Laughter promotes ‘good’ wrinkles. Okay, this is more vanity than health, but we’d all rather have smile lines around the eyes than wrinkles from a furrowed brow. Lighten up! You’ll look happier when you’re old.

Laughter and recovery. In some cases (but not all), how fast people recover from an injury can be affected by their attitude and frame of mind. The more you laugh, the more positive you’ll be.

Laughter burns calories. It’s true! Laughing for several minutes at a time can burn calories. If even just 10 at a time, it’s a good excuse!

Laughter increases blood flow. Your body needs blood, so let it flow. Negative emotions can constrict blood flow, but laughter frees it up!

Laughter builds confidence. This may not seem like a direct connection between laughter and health, but it is important. Laughter makes you feel better about yourself, which affects how you use your body. The more you laugh, the more likely you are to sit up straight, be active, and try new things.

So what about the saying “laughter is the best medicine”? Laughter and health do have some clear, proven connections. Maybe it’s not a wonder cure for any big diseases, but it certainly doesn’t hurt (unless you have a bad cough or stomach cramps. Then it might hurt and you should probably stick to smiling!)

At the very least, laughter just feels good. Who can argue with that?

Of course if you have other health issues you should consult your doctor first.

COLLES FRACTURE

Abraham Colles first described this fracture in 1814, as an extra articular break of distal radius, which usually occurs in elderly individuals who fall on an outstretched hand. The lesion is typically dorsally displaced and angulated. The fracture is also caused by a forced dorsiflexion of the wrist, where the dorsal surface undergoes compression and the volar surface undergoes tension.

Abraham Colles was born in 1773, the same year that American colonialist disguised as Indians emptied 342 chests of tea into Boston harbour to avoid paying taxes to the British Crown. These levies were no doubt required to fund the activities of people like Captain James Cook who was meanwhile engaged in trying to find new territories around the islands of New Zealand. Colles grew up in a small village near Kilkenny and graduated in Arts from Trinity College, Dublin. He received a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeon’s in Dublin in 1795, the same year that the British took control of the Cape Province from the Dutch.

A few months later he left Ireland to study in Edinburgh, from where he gained his M.D. in 1797. His main interest was in surgery, and on completion of his degree Colles was fortunate enough to secure an intern position with the eminent surgeon, Sir Astley Cooper at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London. It is said that Astley Cooper was the first man to tie off the abdominal aorta while treating an aortic aneurysm. For whatever reason, Colles walked all the way from Edinburgh to London, and apparently completed the 400 miles in just eight days.

In 1800, Ashley Cooper became surgeon to Guy’s Hospital and Colles returned to start private practice in Dublin. For a long while he found it difficult to make ends meet, but during the period he was elected resident surgeon to Dr. Steeven’s Hospital. The hospital was founded by Dr. Richard Steven’s (1653-1710) who had been more successful in attaining wealth and who had left his fortune to his sister Grizel, upon whose death it was to be used to build a hospital within the city of Dublin. Dr. Stevens had been twice elected President of the College of Physicians. His father was a clergyman from Wiltshire, and had come to Ireland at the time of Oliver Cromwell. The hospital his sister opened in 1733 and was equiped to house 40 patients.

By 1804, Colles had already developed a reputation and was elected Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeon’s in Ireland. Interestingly Sir Ashley Cooper was elected to the same position in England, some seven years later. Colles remained in his position at the Royal College of Surgeons until 1836, during which time he wrote many articles, including the famous ‘On fracture of the carpal extremity of the radius’ in the year of 1814.

During the same period, Sir Astley Cooper remained busy, had even removed a tumour from the head of King George 1V and had been made a baronet. It should be said that Colles was recognised as being an exemplary surgeon and teacher. He was the first to introduce mercury therapy for the treatment of syphilis, which was prevalent in the Dublin of the period. He also noted that a child born with the disease tends to infect the healthiest nurse but never its mother.

Abraham Colles resigned his position in Dr. Steven’s Hospital in 1842, the same year that Abraham Lincoln married the social climber Mary Todd in Springfield. He died one year later in the same year that Richard Wagner first performed his opera ‘The Flying Dutchman’, and Ulysses S. Grant finally gave up his dreams of becoming a mathematician and graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant from West Point Academy.