Health%20and%20Humor

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Health and Humor

• AATH Association of Applied and Therapeutic
  HumorTheir 2016 Annual Meeting will be in Mesa,
  Arizona

By Alleen Nilsen and Don Nilsen
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The Nilsens at the 2014 AATH ConferenceRed
Skelton Museum in Vincennes, Indiana
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The Bible tells us A merry heart doeth good
like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the
bones.

• Modern writers who have explored the idea include

• Of course this picture of our laughing grandson
  makes us want to believe that laughter is good
  for people.

• Patch Adams
• Regina Barecca
• Rod Martin
• Mary Kay Morrison
• Paul McGhee
• Norman Cousins
• William Fry
• Vera Robinson
• Patty Wooten

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Patty Wooten as Nancy Nurse
http//www.jesthealth.com
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Rod Martin, and his colleagues in Canada have
found that

1. Affiliative and self-enhancing humor is
   potentially beneficial.
2. Aggressive and self-defeating humor is
   potentially detrimental.
3. Anyone doing research with humor and health needs
   to be aware of these differences.

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Martin also works with A State-and- Trait
Cheerfulness Inventory.

• It defines a sense of humor as an emotional
  temperament (i.e., the tendency to be habitually
  cheerful and playful), which is consistent with
  the way humor is most often conceptualized in the
  humor and health literature.
• However, Martin warns against simplistic,
  exaggerated, and unsubstantiated research. He
  is especially critical of methodological
  weaknesses in the research on humor and the
  immune system.

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A Sense of Humor Questionnaire was administered
to all 65,000 adults in one county in Norway

• Researchers were searching for correlations were
  between a persons sense of humor and illness
  symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, pounding
  heart, muscular-skeletal pain, blood pressure,
  overall health satisfaction, and obesity.
• After controlling for age, no meaningful
  relationships were found between sense of humor
  and other illness symptoms.

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• The researchers concluded that although
  high-humor individuals do not seem to have
  objectively better health, they are somewhat more
  subjectively satisfied with their health.
• Martin concluded that despite reports in the
  popular media, the research findings on health
  benefits of humor and laughter were not as
  strong, consistent or unambiguous as is commonly
  believed.

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Paul McGhee, in his The Laughter Remedy Health,
Healing, and the Amuse System, takes these kinds
of criticism into his book but nevertheless
advises

• Become more playful surround yourself with
  humor you enjoy. Begin telling jokes and funny
  stories. And laugh at yourself.

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Definition of calories
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Two Answers to the Calories Problem
Theyre too beautiful to eat.
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John Morreall writes about the power of hearty
laughter in the way that it . . .
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• increases blood circulation,
• ventilates the lungs,
• increases oxygen intake,
• reduces water vapor and carbon dioxide in the
  lungs,
• and decreases the risk of pulmonary infection.
• But Rod Martin cautions that hearty laughter may
  also have deleterious effects because while
  extroverts tend to laugh more, they also are
  likely to drink alcohol, to smoke cigarettes, and
  to be obese.

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John Morreall, in his writing explains that the
relief theory has two forms. Humor can be a
relief from pre-existing nervous energy as when
rambunctious kids are forced to sit quietly for a
long time. Once the pressure is off, they often
resort to horseplay, buffoonery, and laughter.

• The second kind is the set-up for a joke or
  cartoon that may require concentration, attention
  to detail, and emotional engagement. The punch
  line is a release of either type of pent-up
  energy. For an example he gives
• I had written to Aunt Maud
• Who was on a trip abroad
• Then I heard shed died of cramp,
• Just too late to save the stamp.

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Conundrums
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Other Research Findings

• Humorous laughter lowers the level of stress
  hormones (epinephrine, cortisol, dopac, and
  growth hormone).
• In the brain, catecholamines are secreted, which
  may increase alertness, reduce inflammation, and
  trigger the release of endorphins, the brains
  natural opiates.
• This may account for the reduction of pain as
  reported by researchers including Norman Cousins
  and Ofra Nevo, who does research in Israel.

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Ironic Truths
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If Humor Is So Good For Us, Where Can We Find It?

• One place is at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
  where humor helps transcend the moment and attain
  a broader perspective.
• One member told how even when she was drunk or
  hung over, she tried to be what society expected
  her to be. She volunteered to help with her
  sons Cub Scout troop on a day they were sewing
  moccasins.
• Of course she got a laugh when she reported, I
  remember sewing it, honest-to-God I can still
  feel it, onto my finger.

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Clowns have a long history dating from the 15th
and 16th centuries and the Italian commedia
dellarte.

• Shakespearean Harlequin

• Modern Scary Clown

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All Cultures Have Clowns

• It takes nothing more than a prop of some kind to
  turn ordinary people into clowns.

• More formal clowns include circus performers and
  character clowns.

• Charlie Chaplin was world-famous because he did
  not rely on language.
• Sports mascots are also clowns as they mime in
  huge arenas, wear over-sized costumes, do
  acrobatics, and use huge props.

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Clowns Loved by Our Grandparents

• Emmett Kelly was so skilled at pantomiming the
  role of Weary Willie that Ringling Brothers
  allowed him to remain in the circus arena for the
  whole performance. He would sweep a circle of
  light into smaller and smaller circles and then
  chase it under a rug or into a trash can.
• Harpo Marx was mute and communicated by honks,
  whistles, and pantomime. He wore a fright wig
  and an overcoat with enormous inside pockets from
  which he pulled out ice cream cones, cups of
  coffee, and once in a while, a blowtorch.

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Canadian Association of Therapeutic Clowns

• http//www.therapeuticclowns.ca/index.html

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Patch Adams is the most famous American supporter
of humor and health.
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Clowns Have a Code of Conduct

• While in character, clowns should not be seen
  doing normal things like shopping or eating.
• They should not appear in public wearing only
  part of their costume.
• When at sports events or community celebrations,
  they should be willing to fill in dead time,
  provide photo opportunities, give young children
  someone to relate to, and remember that their job
  is bringing happiness.

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Clowns Protested When . . .

• Bob Dole referred to President Clinton as Bozo.
  Larry Harmon, the creator of Bozo protested
  having his characters name used as an insult.
• One Halloween, a Paulsboro, New Jersey police
  officer dressed as a clown managed to arrest 12
  individuals wanted for routine traffic offenses.
  
• He bragged that the costume got him inside homes
  where if he had come in his uniform and asked for
  someone by name, he would have most likely been
  told, He isnt here.

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There is no end to the types of clowns now being
developed.

• These live clowns at Disney World are plants.

• The newest clowns are connected to hospitals.
• In more than 100 U. S. hospitals, clowns either
  roam the halls pushing humor carts, giving out
  smiley faces, joke books, and clown dolls, or
  managing full scale humor rooms.

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The Humor in Hospitals is usually provided by
nurses rather than doctors.

• This might be because nurses work more closely
  with patients than do doctors so they get to know
  them better.
• Also nurses are often caught in the middle of a
  hierarchy and gain power by joking and clowning
  around with patients, often at the expense of the
  doctors.

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2012-2013 Teddy Bear Toss for 12,947 Kids at
Penn State Hersheys Childrens Hospital

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vP4ENgOxVZm0

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Norman Cousins
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• In 1979, Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday
  Review of Literature, published his best-selling
  Anatomy of an Illness.
• He had a serious collagen disease that affected
  the connective tissue of his spine and joints.
  The disease was life-threatening, his pain was
  intense, and the doctors gave him little hope for
  a full recovery.
• He was frustrated by the hospital routines and
  his slow progress, so he checked himself out of
  the hospital and into a nearby hotel.

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• Because of his celebrity status, the doctors
  visited him and delivered his medication, while
  he used humor-intervention therapy. He read
  humorous books, and watched funny movies, and
  tapes of TVs Candid Camera.
• He found that the more he laughed, the longer his
  body was without pain.
• He persuasively made the case that if it is
  possible to have a psychosomatic illness, then it
  is also possible to have a psychosomatic
  wellness.

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• In 1971, Dr. WILLIAM FRY at Stanford Universitys
  Medical School began empirical studies on the
  effects of humor and laughter. He went beyond
  anecdotal stories by objectively testing and
  measuring physical responses to humor.
• He found that the chemical compositions of tears
  are different when a person is laughing as
  compared to crying.
• Dr. Fry showed that peoples bodies are tense
  when listening to a joke, but relaxed at the end.
  
• He compared the bodys production of dopamine
  when laughing to a runners high, which is why he
  calls laughter Internal Jogging.

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• William Fry says that hearty laughter is a kind
  of internal jogging
• Here is an exercise that you might want to
  consider ?

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VERA ROBINSON, a Nurse Educator, published an
influential book Humor and the Health Professions
in 1977.
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Alleen and Don Nilsen American Association of
Therapeutic HumorDoug Fletcher Lifetime
Achievement Award Winners

• http//www.aath.org/lifetime-awards
• http//www.aath.org/past-award-winners

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We know that humor is good for people, but we
also want to offer some warnings

1. People have individualized senses of humor. What
   makes one person laugh might annoy or insult
   someone else.
2. Even if its true that people with a good sense
   of humor live longer it might be that people who
   are healthy and successful have more reason to be
   cheerful.
3. Also pleasant patients may receive better health
   care than do grumpy and hostile patients.

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• While hearty laughter pumps adrenalin and other
  powerful chemicals into peoples blood streams,
  other things have the same effect on health and
  healing e.g. visits from pets, family members,
  close friends, and clergy, etc.
• If laughter enhances the immune system, then what
  
• what about implant patients. A stronger
  immune
• system might cause them to reject their
  implants.
• At the least, we will go along with the scholar
  who
• compared using humor to changing a babys
  diaper. It doesnt permanently solve any
  problems, but it makes things more acceptable for
  a while.

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In conclusion, here is a picture that made us
laugh, not because Bruce Jenner wanted to be a
woman but because he thinks this is how
65-year-old women look.
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• Thanksgiving Dinner Diets
• http//www.youtube.com/embed/TX9EAavxrus