Laughter and pain

 

Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. ~ Arnold H. Glasgow

Laughter is a powerful antidote to pain. Time and time again it has been shown that the old adage Laughter is The Best Medicine really has a grounding in the truth.

One possible explanation could be that humor activates the release of endorphins and relieves muscular tension.  This means it has an effect on pain both a mentally and physically.

"...humor helps to reflect pain, thus helping both the patients as well as their carers to deal better with stress," said Professor Willibald Ruch, Zurich University. "Humor can be used specifically as a cognitive technique, for example in terms of a distraction to control the pain and increase pain tolerance."

The idea that laughter reduces pain is not new. Dr. James Walsh, an American physician, noted in his 1928 book, Laughter and Health, that laughter appeared to reduce the level of pain experienced following surgery.

More recently research has found that people who had recently experienced belly laughs were able to withstand up to 10% more pain than they had done before watching comedy videos.

Professor Robin Dunbar of Oxford University, who led the research, believes that uncontrollable laughter releases chemicals called endorphins into the body which, as well as generating mild euphoria, also dull pain.

The ability to have a really good belly laugh is unique to humans. Apes can laugh but only humans can guffaw. 

"It's exactly what happens when we say 'I laughed until it hurt'. It seems to be extremely painful and it's that pain that produces the endorphin effect." Professor Robin Dunbar.

Now I'm not saying that the following jokes will send you into wild guffaws but maybe they are just a humorous distraction for a few minutes. 

Also I am collecting all the chronic illness/ fibromyalgia humor I can find on a Pinterest board called Fibro Funny. 

Don't forget to share your on Fibro humor on Twitter every Monday with the hashtag #FunnyFibro to be shared to over 10,000 Fibromyalgia people.