Guest Author - Wollie Woehler

Suffering from Depression? Laughter can be one of the best mild depression medicines as there really is a connection between humour and health. According to the late magazine editor Norman Cousins, who suffered from a crippling and irreversible connective tissue disease, his recovery was helped by laughing through the whole 'Marx Brothers” collection, a group popular between the 1930’s and 1960’s. Laughing really does help to lift your spirits. And it shouldn't be ignored as one of the best and most natural mild depression medicines. Comedy did not vanish after the 1960’s, each generation has a wealth of comedies to choose from. Don’t feel like laughing? What is there to laugh about in this miserable life? It is the festive season of the year and you feel left out as you may be alone? Look at that frown on your forehead and your mouth tight and bitter? I still tell you to find something to laugh at aloud, even if it leads to tears of … frustration, or in the end, tears of inner joy brought about through spasms of laughter.

R. N. Chamfort said -- "The most wasted day of all is that during which we have not laughed." Let us stop wasting time and start laughing. How about watching a few comedy films or stand-up shows? Watch funny programs on television. Read funny books or listen to funny audio books. And laugh! It can be one of the best mild depression medicines out there.

Laughter is such an intrinsic part of our lives that we sometimes forget how very odd it is That, despite the development of sophisticated new technology such as newfangled imaging machines like MRI and PET scans, neuroscientists still do not know what's happening in our brain when we laugh. It is said that the brain stem plays a role. People who've suffered strokes in this primitive brain region have been known to have prolonged bouts of pathological laughter. Sanencephalic infants — babies born missing their higher brain circuitry — make faces that appear to be smiles or laughs, when they are tickled, implicating the primitive brain.

Laughing in response to something funny also calls on more sophisticated brain functions. One brain study in humor research looked at the electrical activity that occurs as we chuckle, giggle, or Laugh boisterously. According to Peter Derks, professor of psychology at the College of William and Mary, about four-tenths of a second after we hear the punch line of a joke—but before we laugh—a wave of electricity sweeps through the cortex.

Laughter is ultimately an expression of emotion — joy, surprise, nervousness, or amusement. Humor is a coping mechanism. According to psychiatrist Joseph Richman, professor emeritus at Albert Einstein Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, a study of depressed and suicidal senior citizens, showed that the patients who recovered were the ones who demonstrated a sense of humor.

All of this makes sense in light of laughter's numerous physiological effects. "After you laugh, you go into a relaxed state, your blood pressure and heart rate drop below normal, so you feel profoundly relaxed. Laughter also indirectly stimulates endorphins, the brain's natural painkillers.

You may ask again what there is to laugh about when life turns its back to you through illness, poverty, loneliness ….

I visited a friend whose husband suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. She told me that her husband, when left alone in the bathroom, will wash his hair with tooth paste, brushes his teeth with shaving cream and shaves with shampoo! If she did not have a sense of humor to see the fun in this process, she will land up in hospital because of a nervous breakdown.

No matter what the circumstances, be it illness, depression, frustrations due to factors beyond your control, may the festive season through 2008 be known as a period of laughter. Laughing with yourself, with others will be a definite benefit to your physical and mental health. Remember that laughing at yourself and others, is a sure degrading experience to all parties whereas laughing WITH one another builds relationships! In most situations there will be something to laugh at, look for the humor in each situation and help your body to cope in a healthy manner with daily stress and frustrations..

Relax with the following book from Amazon.com:

Can laughter and productivity go together?
Serious-Laughter-Happier-Healthier-Productive