Laughter heals. Healing laughter against diseases - laughter therapy for health What does the expression laughter mean?

In Chelyabinsk, they treat with laughter
Why do we smile so little? Remember how in childhood we emotionally and without hesitation reacted to a joke we heard or an anecdote we read. However, over the years, the feeling of fun began to disappear.
On the eve of the Day of Laughter, a candidate of medical sciences, associate professor of the department told the correspondent of MK-Ural about why it is useful to laugh and how laughter can cure various ailments sports medicine and physical rehabilitation UralGUFK Andrey SKUTIN.

- Andrei Viktorovich, who becomes the patients of a laughter therapist?

A course of laughter therapy is recommended to many. I will give just a few examples. Thus, the effectiveness in the treatment of women with hypertension was noted. After a few sessions, their anxiety and depression are reduced. At the same time, well-being, activity and mood become better. And in patients suffering from chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma, fears and obsessions go away and the cardiovascular and respiratory systems improve. Even in women with stomach cancer, there have been positive developments. For example, their appetite improved among other things. In addition, it was noted that patients who underwent a course of laughter therapy were discharged from the hospital earlier than those who did not.

Laughter therapy can be used even in group work. It helps to unite and harmonize relationships and relieve stressful situations, raise motivation for work.

- Does laughter therapy have different directions?

Certainly! Three of them are currently in practice. The first direction is classical laughter therapy. Patients are told funny stories, funny episodes from life and anecdotes. You can watch humorous films and read funny books.

The second is medical clowning. Today, clowns work at medical institutions in almost all developed European countries. Most often they can be found in children's hospitals. Performances and pranks are arranged for little patients, clowns even parody doctors. Unfortunately, this is not yet regulated in our country. There is no such thing in Chelyabinsk at all, although Yekaterinburg already has its own developments.

Children are open creatures who do not have complexes and various clamps. While adults are subject to certain stereotypes. That is why babies are open to laughter and communication.

The third is the laughter yoga of the Bombay scholar Madan Kataria. There are mantras that help a person recover. For example, "ha-ha" has a positive effect on the heart. Instead of drinking medicine, it is better to repeat this phrase up to 50 times a day. Then those who do this will have a sharp rise in mood, blood pressure will go away and various diseases will be treated.

Another mantra is: "hee hee." The doctor recommends it, first of all, to girls and women. The neckline and wrists will not bother them, and crow's feet around the eyes will also disappear. Saying this mantra, they will not need to use cosmetics, visit salons, go for a massage.

The third mantra is "ho-ho". It affects the area of the large intestine. Mantra treats almost all diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. If you repeat it up to 50 times, then a whole bunch of diseases will disappear. Even constipation and diarrhea will stop bothering you.

- Will laughter therapy give an effect in just one session?

In general, there are four stages in this process. At least nine to ten sessions should be held. The first stage is laughter techniques, of which there are a large number. All exercises are carried out either in the form of reflex laughter or in the form of contra-breathing. The second stage is laughter meditation. Patients try to put on a smile on their faces. Further, various creative dynamic laughter techniques come into play. For example, the guys dance in pairs on a piece of paper, which gets smaller and smaller every time. As a result, a man has to pick up a woman in his arms, thereby showing creativity. The winner is the pair that can stand on a small piece of paper. At the fourth stage, jokes, anecdotes, aphorisms and riddles are told. For example, I propose to solve the following: “What is the difference between a horse and a needle?” Do not know? And the answer is simple: “First they sit on a needle, and then they bounce, and vice versa with a horse.”

- Do you have any treatment preferences?

I love using historical anecdotes. For example, how do you like this joke: “The merchant Semipopova wrote a petition to the highest name to change the dissonant surname. Nicholas II imposed a resolution: "Five is enough."

I often tell stories that happened in real life. After all, humor is with us, the main thing is to see it. Yes, I am trying to be funny. Once I was riding in a minibus and to the driver’s question: “Do you have Tchaikovsky?” answered him that he had already died long ago. I didn't offend anyone, and the passengers' spirits rose. Sometimes even black humor is allowed. But I have excluded from my work obscene, greasy and cynical jokes. Everything where there is a humiliation of the personality and dignity of a person is forbidden for me.

- Surely, laughter therapy has contraindications ...

Contraindications are everywhere. You can not laugh for a long time for those who have a hernia, eye diseases or lung diseases. Protracted laughter is dangerous for women who are in an interesting position, as this can lead to premature birth. It is also dangerous to laugh for people who have undergone surgery a few months ago. It is impossible to heal those who have low motivation or no motivation at all.

- Andrei Viktorovich, is it possible to get rid of personal problems with a joke?

I would not advise falling into depression if something tragic happened in life. It is better to find strength in yourself and smile at what happened. You have to put on a smile. In the end, the mood will still improve, and the person will come out of depression.

Humor and spiritual joy must be opposed to the surging anxiety and apathy and help other people in this. Recently, there is so much grief and irritants around that you need to get rid of them. With the help of laughter, we help others survive in such difficult conditions.

By the way

The most important thing is not to laugh, but to be in a state of joy. When it is, a person feels amazing, and everything works out for him.

Five minutes of laughter replaces forty minutes of rest.

So far, in our country, laughter therapy is treated with some distrust, while in Europe it has long been known and actively used. In Chelyabinsk, at the moment, more than a dozen theses have been successfully defended, the supervisor of which was Andrey Skutin. The laughter therapist himself is now busy writing his doctoral dissertation.

In conclusion, I would like to quote the famous words of Baron Munchausen. He said the following: “Smile, gentlemen, smile. A serious facial expression is not a sign of intelligence at all. All the stupid things in the world are done with this facial expression.

In general, infect others with your smile, and they will answer you the same!

MK help

Andrey Skutin — Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Sports Medicine and Physical Rehabilitation, Uralsky state university physical culture. Psychiatrist, psychotherapist, popularizer of a new medical technology - laughter therapy since 2001.

The first to become interested in laughter therapy were two Americans, Lee Burke and William Fry. They, being students, in the mid-60s of the last century, decided to do research in the field of laughter. Young people told their classmates various jokes and took blood tests before and after. The results showed that after laughter, people had a sharp increase in the number of antibodies. A boom in the study of this phenomenon began a little later, when the editor of an American magazine, Norman Cousins, who suffered from an incurable disease, got himself on his feet with a comedy marathon. The man was laughing all the time. The doctor, who said that he had only one chance in a hundred to survive, was very surprised when he saw him completely healthy. This case went down in history under the name "The Man Who Made Death Laugh".

material: Anastasia KHIVINTSEVA

Since about the 70s of the last century, scientists have been engaged in quite a serious study of laughter. Then interest in this psychological phenomenon captured the scientific community and the United States. Projects have emerged to investigate the effects of laughter on our health and well-being. Since that time, the scientific community has accumulated a fair amount of information about the healing properties of laughter. Currently, the world is preparing a huge number of specialists in laughter therapy - the so-called gelotologists.

Long before we began our research, we knew that laughter improved mood and well-being—and not just for the time we were laughing. Sometimes the positive effects of a funny joke last all day! At the biochemical level, this is due to the intense release of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, as well as endorphins. In addition, laughter is a very useful physical exercise, comparable in its effectiveness only to a good aerobic exercise. It involves 80 muscle groups - during the bursting laughter, our shoulders and chest shake, the diaphragm vibrates. At the same time, the muscles of the neck, back and face relax - and this alone is already enough to relieve, for example, a headache. During laughter, like any physical education, the pulse quickens and cholesterol levels decrease. At the same time, the quality of breathing improves in people and, accordingly, oxygen consumption and blood supply to the body.

Studies have shown that laughter can save almost all diseases - and not just psychological problems or neuroses. It reduces the production of stress hormones, normalizes blood pressure, improves immunity. Still, according to experts, regular laughter will not allow the "core" to become a victim of a heart attack. There are known cases of curing even oncological diseases by laughter therapy.

After all this, the only thing left is to laugh. Alas, most of us need some examples of especially subtle humor for this. We consider it below our dignity to watch not very high-quality humorous programs. We all know a huge number of jokes, but every joke is a one-time thing. Someone has no sense of humor at all, and even a dozen great comedians gathered in one room will not make him laugh. In such cases, psychotherapists suggest laughter for no reason. We have a saying in our country: "Laughter for no reason is a sign of a fool", but from a medical and psychological point of view, it is completely wrong. The happy ability to smile and laugh without waiting for any special conditions has long been considered one of the indicators of mental and physical health. This ability is much more important than the ability to witty jokes or instantly understand jokes. In Japan, there is a legend about the cheerful Zen monk Hotei, who walked around the villages and laughed so contagiously that everyone around him joined him. And in the end, a whole crowd turned out to be embraced by a healing laughter.

A professional laughter therapist will always find an approach to the patient and take measures to ensure that he laughs as much as necessary for his recovery. But if a specialist is not at hand, you can try to do laughter therapy yourself. Each of us can try to live the day in fun if he tries to laugh before going to bed, and then in the early morning, right after he wakes up. You can achieve the best effect if you start laughing with your eyes closed.

Currently, there are laughter therapy exercises, some of which even last three hours. Without a specialist, such procedures are difficult to carry out, and besides, they are usually done as part of a course, sometimes even consisting of several weeks. In addition to laughter, therapy sometimes also includes causeless, but equally healing crying, as well as relaxation and self-observation, and even dancing.

In our time, full of "stress and passion", a smile and joyful laughter have become the same fashionable attributes of a healthy lifestyle as sports, proper nutrition and the rejection of bad habits. In many European countries, centers of laughter have already been opened, where people come like to fitness clubs. They teach only to enjoy life: to smile at sunny and cloudy weather, rain and howling wind, the laughter of a baby and the look of a passerby. And, I must say, not only professional psychotherapists do this. For example, in the US, "humor" is actively promoted by actor Charles Metcalf (the term belongs to him). He usually starts his seminars with an elementary exercise: get up - breathe - laugh. According to Metcalfe, it is very important to recognize the absurdity of the misfortune or failure that has befallen you. In addition, he advises to always keep a clown nose with you and sometimes put it on - in front of a mirror or even in public. According to the actor, this simple exercise will make you much happier than the habit of going to a bar after work.

Laughter occupies a place of honor in our lives. “Of all living beings, only man is capable of laughter.” This phrase of Aristotle in the Middle Ages was given a huge - expanded - meaning: laughter was considered as the highest spiritual privilege of a person, inaccessible to any other creatures. By the way, people have laughter - not an innate quality. According to Aristotle, a child begins to laugh no earlier than forty days after his birth, and only then becomes a full-fledged person, writes women.itop.net.

In such a kind of initiation into the Man with laughter, he was apparently right. Because everyone, without exception, can laugh. Although laughter also needs to be learned. This is what the eyes of the mother teach the baby in the first 5-8 weeks of life. And already at the age of two or three months, the baby begins to smile and laugh. At the age of six comes the peak of cheerfulness - the child smiles and laughs about 300 times a day!

While an adult (even the most gloomy) smiles or grins only about 15 times a day. But in vain, because laughter has more than enough healing properties.
In all developed countries of the world, hepotology is a science that studies the impact on human body laughter - is developing at a tremendous pace, and all because laughter therapy has an amazing effect in the treatment of various diseases.

origins

This science is most developed and applied in the United States (although now many European countries are actively using laughter therapy). The fact is that it was the American, journalist and psychology teacher Norman Cousins who laid the foundation for it.
In fairness, it must be said that he did it impromptu. And to be more precise, out of desperation. When, after many unsuccessful attempts to cure him of collagenosis (a disease of bones and connective tissues) - he could hardly move, even open his mouth and chew (all this was accompanied by severe pain) - the doctors shrugged and explained that medicine was powerless, he began to act . How? Then, articles by the neurologist William Fry appeared in magazines, investigating the beneficial effects of laughter on the body's resistance to disease. And Cousins began treatment: he was discharged from the hospital, moved to a hotel, ordered a film projector in the room, and the nurse played comedies for him for days. He didn't laugh for several days. Then he suddenly felt very funny: he, an idiot, lies motionless and stupidly watches a comedy, seriously hoping that a couple of comedians will save his life. And he began to laugh like crazy, after which he discovered that his back ached less. A few weeks later, there was already a steady improvement in the condition. And after a couple of years of laughter therapy, Norman Cousins not only gained the ability to move - he returned to work and was even able to play his beloved Bach on the piano again.
And research in this area, as you understand, continued with renewed vigor ...

Laughter = immunity

Let's start with the main advantage of His Majesty Laughter.

At the University of California Medical Center, scientists have found that under the influence of laughter therapy, immunity increases. The subjects were subjected to forced fun, caused by the same simple method - the broadcast of comedies. While the first group was laughing, the second (control group) sat quietly, not hearing the laughter of their comrades.

The doctors determined (from blood samples taken before, after, and during the study) that the response to humor triggered physiological processes similar to those that occur in athletes. In the laughter group, there was a decrease in the levels of stress hormones - cortisol and adrenaline, which allows the body's immune systems to work more efficiently. So, in the study, an increase in the number of T-lymphocytes fighting viruses was found.

In other words, the immune system's response to laughter is exactly the opposite of the response to stress.

Those who like to laugh really get sick less often. By the way, one of the studies showed that babies of cheerful mothers are much less likely to get ARVI and flu.

And the most interesting data was obtained by Margaret Stuber from the University of Los Angeles. A group of children were asked to keep their hands in cold water (about 10ºC) for as long as they could. Under normal conditions, they withstood 87 seconds at the most, and when watching a comedy - 125. Interestingly, in laughing children, the pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate practically did not change. All this led to the conclusion that laughter has a stimulating effect on the immune system and protects the child's body from stress.
- As a result of such therapy, the immune system begins to actively destroy precancerous cells!

Calm your nerves

The already mentioned neurologist W. Fry considers laughter, first of all, as a special way of breathing, in which the inhalation is extended and becomes deeper, and the exhalation, on the contrary, is shortened, but the intensity is such that the lungs are completely freed from air. As a result, compared with a calm state, gas exchange is accelerated by three to four times, which, in turn, improves the blood supply to organs and tissues. In a word, laughter for the body is like a walk in the forest or an oxygen cocktail.

But in ordinary life, many of us breathe incorrectly: with an open mouth and without pauses. Such breathing is too shallow (as if it is scary to take a deep breath), and leads to respiratory alkalosis (an increase in the content of alkalis in the blood and tissues of the body), which causes neuromuscular hyperexcitability.

According to the observations of the French physician Henry Rubinstein, this condition is typical for indecisive, timid people who are tormented by all sorts of fears and phobias. Breathing during laughter, Rubinstein believes, is good, correct, it helps to fight alkalosis, which means to overcome the feeling of fear.

And the founder of the doctrine of stress, Hans Selye, said that stress is equally successfully removed as an adequate physical activity, and positive emotions, since in both cases antistress substances are produced in the endocrine glands.

The merry fellow is not afraid of a heart attack

Exactly. And there is strong scientific evidence for this. Director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland (USA) Michael Miller conducted an interesting study. It involved 150 people who had had a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery, and 150 healthy people. Participants took a simple test with the most ordinary questions about how they would behave if, for example: “the waiter spills coffee on you”, “they step on your foot in transport”, “the handle of the briefcase breaks”, and so on.
It turned out that the "cores" mostly reacted sullenly or hostilely, and healthy ones - more often with humor.

The scientist concluded that anger, stress cause a violation of the endothelium - the protective inner lining of blood vessels. This leads to the accumulation of cholesterol on the walls of the coronary arteries and leads to infarction and ischemia.

Experts from the same university found that laughter has a very beneficial effect on blood vessels: in volunteers who watched a “serious” film, blood flow was inhibited by 35%, and when watching a comedy, on the contrary, blood was accelerated by 22%.

William Fry explains it this way: when a person laughs, about 80 muscle groups work for him - the shoulders move, the chest shakes, the diaphragm vibrates, the heart beats faster, the oxygen content in the blood rises due to the fact that he gains a full chest of air.

According to Michael Miller, laughter can be safely added to the list of factors contributing to the preservation of a healthy heart: "The recommendations of doctors should sound like this: exercise, low-fat foods and laughter several times a day."

Cheerful people are 40% less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases than gloomy ones. This serious difference was discovered by chance in one study.

Medicine for the stomach

Laughter is also the best natural body cleansing system. When we laugh, the abdominal muscles tighten, followed by the muscles of the smooth muscles of the intestines, improving its functioning and facilitating the release of toxins and toxins from it. In other words, laughter performs the so-called intestinal gymnastics. A couple of thousand years ago, the famous scientist and physician Hippocrates wrote about the benefits of laughter as a remedy: he argued that a smiling and lively conversation during dinner has a good effect on digestion. Laughter also serves as an aphrodisiac for the liver.

The well-known phrase said by the hero of the book of the great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche Zarathustra will be very appropriate here: “Ten times you must laugh during the day and be cheerful: otherwise your stomach will bother you at night, this is the father of sorrow.”

Laugh for beauty

And more often. After all, we adults use facial muscles much less often than any other. If children's facial expression changes 20 times a day, then people over thirty have only three. And as all the same American scientists have established, there is a relationship between the activity of the facial muscles and the blood supply to the brain. When you laugh or at least smile, blood flow to the brain increases, it receives more oxygen, which has a positive effect on the emotional state. Studies have shown that a person who often laughs easily solves all problems, is distinguished by generosity and willingness to help, as well as a rare ability to love.

By the way, fearing wrinkles on the face, some women try to restrain their laughter. But the mask of seriousness deprives the face of living emotions. But laughter from the heart tones the muscles of the face, and a rush of blood pretty much nourishes the skin, which is necessary to maintain its tone. Moreover, when you are sad, all the muscles of your face hang down and become flabby. But when you laugh and smile, the muscles of your face rise and move. Instead of 40 minutes of relaxation, scientists recommend 5 minutes of healthy laughter instead of 40 minutes. The real "biochemical storm" that occurs in the human body during laughter eliminates fatigue, and makes the skin of the face elastic.

Remember the saying of everyone's favorite Baron Munchausen? “A serious face is not yet a sign of intelligence. And the biggest stupid things on Earth were committed with this facial expression.

Humor is the figure's friend

Let's return to the main researcher of the benefits of laughter, William Fry. He found out another pleasant fact: laughter affects the body, like motor exercises. According to him, 27 seconds of laughter is equivalent to 3 minutes of rowing in terms of cardiovascular effects - that is, it performs the same function as cardio training. And a minute of sincere laughter brings as many health benefits as a 40-minute run!

Laughter generally improves the effectiveness of training. As the American psychologist Henry Schwartz established, it is pointless to go in for sports in a depressed state - there will not be a big effect anyway. But if you are in a good mood and often laugh (of course, not during training, but before it or during breaks), a similar load will noticeably improve both your well-being and figure. Yes, and those who seek to build weight while on a diet should make the phrase “Laugh more often and louder from the heart” as their motto. After all, laughter produces energy, which can help you lose weight.

By the way, 2,000 delegates from 80 countries at the European Congress on obesity listened to the message about the benefits of laughter in all seriousness. According to report author Matej Baczowski, 10-15 minutes of heartfelt laughter can burn the equivalent of a medium-sized chocolate bar in calories.

Yoga

Yoga Haasya is a group laughter practice based on yoga techniques. Breathing and a variety of types of laughter stimulation are important. But: no achievements of scientific and technological progress can replace the laughter that occurs in the process of live communication. The first to understand this was the Indian doctor Madan Kataria, who developed "laughter yoga", the main goal of which is to teach a person to move from unnatural laughter to natural laughter. In his opinion, "laughter is contagious, so that a person easily passes from artificial laughter to natural laughter." And indeed, it is difficult to remain serious, watching how the participants in the psychotherapeutic session are trying to portray a laughing slipper, a fun door lock, a laughing mouse or lion. One session is enough for a whole week!

And it all started with the fact that in 1995 Madan Kataria decided to write an article on the healing properties of laughter based on his many studies. But the material was not published. Then the doctor went to the Bombay city garden and gave a speech on the benefits of laughter in front of a couple of dozen onlookers. This day can be considered the founding date of the Laughter Club - now an international organization with branches around the world.

First, through the efforts of Kataria, special “laughter clubs” appeared in all major cities of India, in which people came to have fun from the heart and “get rid of stress and prevent a heart attack.” Now there are more than 500 of them in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) alone.

And how are they?

In many American, Swedish, French and Austrian clinics, laughter therapy rooms are open, where video cassettes with strictly metered portions of laughter are delivered; Entire TV channels are given over to medical entertainment programs that are broadcast to hospitals via cables. So much more successful is the fight against chronic diseases. Clown costumes, funny noses, glasses are sent to children's clinics - doctors and nurses wear them when communicating with little patients.

In the case of “medical clowns”, an American was also the first - in the early 80s of the last century, the director of the famous American circus, Michael Christensen, organized the Clown Ambulance, whose employees visited children with cancer.
Doctors were astonished to state that after the visit of the clown, the effectiveness of treatment increased many times over. It was from this time that medical clowns began their victorious march around the world.

In Germany, there is a whole association of clown doctors who turn the treatment of seriously ill children into a game.

In large hospitals in Austria and Holland, the rates of medical clowns appeared in the staffing table.

In 2001, through the efforts of the American Harry Edwards, the civic association "Therapeutic Clown" appeared in the Czech Republic. Volunteers included in it regularly arrange clowning in Czech hospitals.

Currently, Poland and Hungary have joined their movement.
And they went the furthest in Israel - in one of the hospitals, six-month courses were organized to train doctors, nurses and physiotherapists specializing in "medical clown". Their graduates work in all major medical centers in the country.

A book by Sigmund Feuerabend “Laughter cures cancer” was published in Austria, in which he writes: “Laughter must be born in the depths of the soul, it does not recognize falsehood. Laughter is a mindset. Illness too. But one person cannot have two worldviews. One must prevail. Try to win laughter ... "

By the way:

There are three areas of laughter therapy:
1. Classic. The laughter therapist conducts individual or group sessions in which people laugh (they are told jokes, funny stories, they listen to laughter, they watch comedies).
2. Medical clowning. Medical clowns perform in front of hospital patients, which is good for the sick.
3. Yoga of laughter. It was developed by Indian doctors, they teach a person to laugh easily and naturally, naturally and often.

Interesting facts about laughter

Air, which escapes from the lungs at a speed of 100 km / h, frees the bronchi from mucus accumulated there and facilitates breathing in inflammatory processes, such as bronchitis or asthma.
- Laughter enhances creativity and problem solving skills. It activates the limbic system of the brain, connecting the left and right hemispheres.
- Comparing the life expectancy of famous theater actors over the past 270 years, Swedish doctors have revealed an unexpected pattern: comedians live much longer than tragedians.
- At one of the congresses of the International Society for the Study of Laughter, data were presented regarding cancer diseases: patients who are regularly mixed have a higher cure rate and better medical indicators compared to the control group.
- In the 17th century, doctors said: "The arrival of a clown in the city means more to health than ten mules loaded with medicines!"
- The doctor Tiso assured that he cured scrofulous children by tickling, forcing them to laugh.
- In the West, such an experiment was conducted: they examined a group of sellers. It turns out that over time, the most smiling people not only changed their character for the better, but also diseases caused by psychological stress began to disappear.
- The English philosopher and physician William Osler called laughter the music of life and advised you to laugh every day for at least 10 minutes. It is estimated that if a person laughs at least 17 minutes a day, he prolongs his life by one year.
- Doctors do not refuse such a primitive effect as tickling - it helps!
- And scientists from Harvard University believe that a cheerful disposition reduces the chance of various ailments by 50%.
- In Japan, laughter therapy sessions are carried out with great success in tuberculosis hospitals.
- Laughter does not interfere with those who are perfectly healthy. In Malaysia, on the eve of the session, students are taught special breathing exercises that imitate laughter. Experience has shown that all participants in the experiment successfully and easily, absolutely do not worry, pass exams.
- In the USA, for example, when selecting candidates for astronauts, they specifically check whether the candidate knows how to joke and whether he has a sense of humor. And for more than 10 years, the high command of the US military, as well as the heads of large corporations, have been sent to seminars on humor without fail. The famous actor and screenwriter Charles Metcalf conducts classes and calls them humorous.

The science of laughter - originated in the 70s of the last century in America.

And the founder of gelotology, Norman Cousins, went down in history as "the man who managed to make death laugh."

He suffered from a rare joint disease.

When the doctors gave up, Cousins locked himself in a room and watched comedies for hours.

The result was stunning for doctors.

A week later, the patient's pain disappeared, after a month he began to move, and after two he went to work.

Since then, in the US and Europe began to study the effect of laughter on humans.

Humor is as important in our life as air, food and water.

Laughter is an indispensable assistant in difficult situations.

And if a person knows how to laugh at himself and can look at problems from a different angle, he will never give up, but will overcome difficulties with optimism.

Laughter cures cancer

Laughter has a huge effect on the body.

It improves mood and well-being.

And not only when a person laughs at something.

Sometimes a positive charge from a good joke is enough for us for the whole day!

This is due to the intensive production of neurotransmitters by our body: dopamine, serotonin and the "happiness hormones" - endorphins.

Laughter- a useful physical exercise that makes 80 muscle groups work at the same time! A person's shoulders move, the diaphragm vibrates, the muscles of the neck, back and face relax.

Some scientists compare a minute of laughter to 25 minutes of fitness.

During laughter, the pulse quickens.

Exercise has a similar effect.

Laughter is a panacea for almost all diseases..

No exception - cardiovascular and oncological diseases.

It reduces the production of stress hormones and cholesterol levels, normalizes blood pressure and strengthens the immune system.

Sometimes just laughing is enough to get rid of a headache.

A newborn child begins to laugh no earlier than a month after birth.

He learns this from his mother.

If she is cheerful, looks at things with optimism, often laughs, then the baby also borrows it.

Between the ages of one and five, a person laughs most often.

Kids like no other know how to enjoy life.

Children laugh often, sincerely and a lot, they almost always have a wonderful mood.

They are ready for exploits and new discoveries.

The whole world is open before them.

Perhaps because they... laugh.

5 minutes of laughter replaces 40 rest

Foreign doctors use laughter therapy to treat various diseases.

After all, a cheerful, optimistic person is recovering faster.

It is a pity that laughter therapy "came" to us recently.

In the USA, where there are more than 600 laughter therapists, there are Laugh Centers.

People go there like they go to fitness clubs, because it's easier to improve their mood during group laughter sessions and the results last longer.

This is a great pastime: 5 minutes of laughter replaces 40 minutes of rest.

Laughter is a contagious thing.

In good company, laughter occurs 30 times more often than when alone.

Interestingly, the narrator laughs one and a half times more often than his listeners.

In addition, laughter is good for breathing.

It is very useful to laugh during pregnancy.

Laughter therapy is also used during childbirth, at the first stage of contractions, this reduces pain.

However, laughter therapy has certain contraindications.

People who have a hernia, eye disease or lung diseases are not advised to laugh for a long time: chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis.

This is dangerous when there is a threat of miscarriage or postoperative complications.

In this case, people need peace, they should not strain the muscles of the face and other parts of the body.

For others, laughter is medicine.

Humor sessions can be arranged independently.

For example, to live by the rules: "I must laugh at least 10 minutes in the morning, 10 in the afternoon and the same in the evening."

Watch comedies, humorous programs, read jokes, make an archive of cartoons or funny photos.

Communicate more with cheerful people, extroverts.

It is advisable to find some comic moments and make yourself laugh.

There are plenty of options - you can stand in front of a mirror and "make various funny faces."

However, there are people who claim that they don't know how to laugh.

Perhaps the reason is in the serious position they occupy?

In such cases, doctors advise to laugh artificially for 5-10 minutes.

This is enough for the facial muscles to work, and the brain to be "saturated" with oxygen.

Hospitals work ... clowns

If abroad a smile has become one of the components of a healthy lifestyle, like, say, playing sports or giving up bad habits, then our compatriots are still far from that.

You need to laugh often and a lot.

It improves both physical and mental well-being.

The hardest thing for psychotherapists is to set a person up for laughter.

Many consider such treatment ... not serious.

People are hoping to get a miracle pill that will immediately return the lost.

But this does not happen!

There are simple methods with which you need to start working on yourself.

And one of them is laughter therapy.

If a person is cheerful, looks at things with optimism, learns to appreciate life, that he was born and lives, the world around him will change.

Of course, laughter therapy cannot be used as an independent method of treatment, only as an additional one.

In foreign clinics, you can often see a clown next to doctors.

He works in a full-time position, treats both adults and children with laughter.

It would be very useful to introduce a similar practice in our country.

After all, little patients so lack positive emotions!

Where can I get them from in the hospital?

Have you noticed that growing up, a person gradually loses the ability to rejoice and smile, more often being in a sad or depressed state, justifying himself by the fact that there is nothing to rejoice at, life is like that.

Is it necessary to look for a reason in life to smile or rejoice? Maybe you should look around and smile, as in childhood. The sun outside the window, the blue sky, and even better to laugh.

After all, laughter, according to doctors, is considered a harmless drug that causes euphoria in the body. And the positive impact of laughter on health is already a scientifically proven fact.

The science of laughter therapy, what is it

The science of laughter therapy or helotology originated in the last century on the American continent, the founder of which is psychiatrist William Fry, who conducted Scientific research on the effect of laughter on human health.

The development of the science of helotology was helped by an extraordinary incident that happened to the editor of one of their magazines, Norman Cousins, who, through his illness, proved that laughter is good for health.

He was taken to the hospital in critical condition with ankylosing spondylitis, in which one person out of 500 survives. Doctors have already given up on him, but Norman did not give up.

Lying in a hospital bed, he remembered the scientific findings of William Fry that depression should not be succumbed, it acts destructively on the immune system and the whole body as a whole. He moved to a hotel and, under the supervision of a nurse, overcoming unbearable pain, watched comedy films for several hours in a row and laughed heartily.

After a while, Cousins noticed that the pain was receding and he fell asleep for the first time in many months. He watched movies and laughed for 6 hours a day and the disease receded, and not just receded. After 2 months, Cousins was able to return to work. Cousins made death laugh and she forgot about her duties, and laughter therapy saved his life.

This case became a new impetus in the development of the science of helotology. But people have known about the health benefits of laughter since ancient times:

The Bible says, "A despondent spirit dries up the bones, but a merry heart is good as medicine." Aristotle taught laughter to cure diseases, Z. Freud also considered a joke "an effective medicine." Shakespeare has these words: "A cheerful heart lives long", and I. Kant: "Laughter gives health, activating all vital processes."

Apparently, after all, it was not in vain that jesters served at the royal courts, who with a joke and infectious laughter cheered up, preserving the health of their masters.

Health Benefits of Laughter

Scientists have created a computer model of laughter, which shows that during laughter special impulses are created that have a beneficial effect on nervous system and brain function. Therefore, experts recommend laughing every day to heal the body, improving its mental and physical condition:

Laughter is the best medicine for diseases

☻ Laughter relieves nervous tension, depression, stress resistance increases, since the hormones of joy block the production of stress hormones. Just one minute of laughter a day can produce the kind of relaxation that can replace a 30-minute session with a psychotherapist.

☻ During laughter, health and immunity are strengthened, as the production of immunoglobulin increases, interferon gamma is activated, which protects the body from the occurrence of tumors.

In addition, with laughter, pain recedes, because at once about a hundred muscles throughout the body begin to contract and vibrate.

☻ Scientists have proven that during laughter, the blood is saturated with oxygen, blood circulation improves, which leads to the strengthening of the heart muscle, normalizes blood pressure, and lowers cholesterol levels.

Cheerful laughter is compared with physical exercises that contribute to the improvement of the heart system.

☻ Statistics show that laughter is the best medicine, because cheerful people are less likely to get heart disease than gloomy and angry people, and they have heart attacks much less often.

Everything is due to the fact that periods of laughter strengthen the endothelial cells that line the inner walls of the heart and blood vessels. And all other diseases in cheerful people are 70% less common than in pessimists.

☻ Promotes facial rejuvenation. Some women mistakenly believe that laughter increases the number of facial wrinkles. In fact, 17 muscles of the face come into play during a smile, and 80 muscles of the face and body work during a laugh.

Can working muscles age faster than non-working ones? This is a kind of tonic and rejuvenating exercise for the face and physical exercise for the body!

☻ Improves metabolism in the body, which activates the processes of purification. This happens due to a change in breathing, during laughter, the internal muscles of the abdomen are involved, which activates the work of the intestines and lungs.

☻ Laughter has a psychotherapeutic effect on health, because at this time internal complexes are removed, repressed emotions are released, psychological and physical fatigue, psychological problems are relieved, tension is relieved - this is the best medicine for the soul.

☻ A positive attitude and thinking is developed, the ability to laugh at oneself, the ability to enjoy the surrounding reality and life. Laughter removes the clamps, both bodily and emotional, and leads the body to general relaxation, promotes success.

☻ Laughter is also considered as a social factor that unites people, seeing a smiling person next to you, you involuntarily smile yourself.

It helps a person to adapt, improve relationships, cheer up, get rid of negative emotions. Even a forced smile is in some cases seen as a step towards reconciliation.

Laughter therapy treatment

Today, there are several areas of laughter therapy, where laughter is used for health purposes:

Classical laughter therapy

Psychologists and gelotologists, through the use of theatrical forms, reading funny books, watching comedy videos and films, stories about funny life events, cause laughter in a sick person. This direction is widely developed in Western countries, in Russia it is not yet so popular.

Laughter Yoga

This direction of laughter therapy was developed by the Indian doctor Madan Kataria in 1995, which is based on just one technique, called the Goodhart technique. Its essence is to learn to laugh when you are not funny at all.

For this, specially designed schemes for conducting classes are used. Classes are held in Laughter Clubs, which are widely popular in the USA and Western Europe. In Russia, there are only a few disparate clubs, whose specialists have been trained by American gelologists.

hospital clowning

This is laughter therapy for children, which has resulted in a real international movement of volunteer clowns and specialists in the rehabilitation of children. They work in inpatient hospitals using the methods of clowning, game therapy and art therapy.

This movement also originated in the American circus, where the clown Michael Christensen founded the Clown Ambulance Service. The movement quickly spread to other countries.

It is also developed in Russia, Sedov Konstantin is rightfully considered the founder in our country. Laughter therapy for children works in Western traditions, together with psychological centers, and significantly increases the effectiveness of the treatment and recovery of children.

The impact of laughter therapy on children's health

Laughter therapy for children will relieve stiffness, internal stiffness and tension,
develops in children confidence in their own strengths and abilities,
increases cheerfulness, adaptation in the team and sociability,
develops inner harmony of cheerfulness and tranquility,
promotes the development of motor skills,
develops an interest in learning new things.

Laughing children have more stable immunity, rarely get colds.

Possible harm and contraindications for laughter

At first glance, it may seem that laughter has only positive effects without limits. It turns out that people who have a hernia or eye diseases cannot laugh for a long time.

Contagious laughter is contraindicated in pulmonary diseases, pregnant women with the threat of abortion, patients in the postoperative period. Indeed, during laughter, not only the muscles of the face tense up, but also the back, chest, diaphragm, and abdominal cavity, causing microvibrations at the cellular level. For everyone else, laughter is the best medicine.

Surprisingly, scientists assure that even if you are not happy, but you smile through force, even in this case everything works, because the body does not understand whether this smile is sincere or forced.

The same muscles that run the same mechanism work. It causes the same responses in the body and in the soul. And this confirms this fact, students from Malaysia before exams perform special breathing exercises that cause laughter. Those who do it diligently pass exams better than others.

Therefore, for those people who have not been laughing for a long time, who have forgotten how to laugh, doctors advise to laugh artificially, making an effort on themselves, to perform laughter as an exercise for several minutes in a row.

Keeping in mind the beneficial effects of laughter on a person’s well-being and its benefits, bring all 80 muscles to work. So that the brain is saturated with oxygen and healthy energy fills the whole body.

Watch this video to see how laughter can be contagious:

Smile more often, give each other a smile, laugh to your health and live long!

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