By Laurie J. Brenner

If there is one thing I have to admit about my mother, it is that she was always right about this: Laughter is the Best Medicine.

If you cannot laugh about yourself and the things that happen to you–you are headed for a heart attack or some other malady, it is the way the body works. Laughter lightens the moment and strips away the seriousness that many of us approach life with; it releases the pain and chases away your personal rainstorms leaving a bright sunshiny day.

Scientists have also discovered that laughter strengthens your immune system and increases your cardiovascular flexibility (your blood vessels exercise through dilation).

According to Dr. Goodheart, the laughter doctor, “laughter convulses your diaphragm, which in turn massages your internal organs. Massaged internal organs are happy internal organs and they cooperate by staying plump and juicy. It also causes you to gulp in large portions of air, oxygenating your blood.” When that air is expelled, it has been clocked at 70 miles an hour, providing the lungs with an excellent workout. By laughing, she says, “you lose muscle control, which relaxes the skeletal system.” According to Dr. Goodheart, “four-year-olds laugh 500 times a day, while adults laugh a mere 15!” She is convinced that if we laugh as much as a four-year old, we would have the heart rate and blood pressure of that same child.

“On top of all that,” she continues, “laughter causes the brain to produce hormones called beta endorphins, which reduce pain and cause our adrenal glands to manufacture cortisol, which is a natural anti-inflammatory that is wonderful for arthritis.”

Laughter provides a catharsis, which means to purify or purge, to the emotions. It also brings about a spiritual renewal or release from tension. You notice how sometimes you will see a comedian on television, and while he may not be that funny, something just makes you laugh uproariously? Your body seems to know that it needs the chemicals that are released through laughter.

I have always felt better after a good belly laugh or two. For me, that means some very large-sounding snorts and a few donkey brays thrown into the bargain. Some people will not even go to the movie with me because when I start laughing I cannot stop. My daughters always used to go, “Mom!” as they slunk down into their seats trying not to be seen.

When someone is laughing, others laugh along. It is contagious. You cannot help it. Oftentimes in my movie-theater laughter excursions, I have motivated a whole theater-full of people to laugh right along with me. All this during the credits!

There is, however, a difference between laughter, humor, teasing, and tickling. Humor is your way of looking at the world, it is an intellectual exercise. It is your idea of what is funny; it is not the actual act of laughing.

Teasing and tickling are really a way of ridiculing someone. Tickling is something beyond someone’s control and is actually a physical invasion of sorts. Children laugh when you tickle them because the body works that way, but it is actually a form of emotional ridicule that can result in very unpleasant feelings.

Teasing usually has an edge to it. People say they are teasing, but essentially they are often dead serious. Teasing, according to Dr. Goodheart, “involves our having information about something that another person has very strong feelings about, usually painful feelings, and then bringing that information up without permission.” She also says that as people become very good friends they might give each other permission unconsciously to push each other’s buttons. Husbands, wives, lovers, and friends play with each other’s pain with permission. “When you tease without permission in order to trigger laughter, it is very manipulative and controlling.”

All in all, when you are feeling down and need a lift, try laughter. It may be hard at first, but just try laughing. Force yourself. Pretty soon, you will find yourself laughing at your own laughter and the looks you get from your family members. They will begin to wonder what is so funny and the corners of their mouths will crinkle up in the beginning of a smile. Now you are laughing because they give you these quizzical looks wondering what you are laughing about.

Pretty soon, your laugh is real, your belly aches, the tears flow from your eyes, and the world takes on a different hue.