A researcher named Norman Cousins wrote that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect that would give someone at least two hours of sleep! He apparently got cured of his cancer because of this.
We sometimes take life too seriously that we forget to smile and laugh. We get irritated with a lot of things, some very petty and superficial. We worry too much about tomorrow that it consumes our thoughts most of the time.
A patient of mine has this wonderful life disposition that I think is worthy of emulating. I diagnosed him of having a chronic allergic rhinitis a year ago and he has not really been responding well to medications since. I get to see him every two months for follow-up and every time I see him, he’s always smiling and laughing. One time I commented that he doesn’t seem to be suffering from the disease because he doesn’t have the ‘classic’ look of a person with allergy that I see often with my other patients. He said that it is because he smiles and laughs often that his facial muscles are stretched and ‘exercised’ frequently giving him a ‘refreshing’ look similar to that after you have a facial spa. He added that if only he’s working in an aircon-free office and smoke-free environment, he thinks he would not have to see me often.
Indeed, laughter is still the best medicine we have for all types of diseases. It works not only on the physical but also deep into the soul of every one. It heals the core and radiates out from there. Its effect is obvious even in the eyes of a non-medical person.
A proverb says that angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. Truly, our bodies have different weights and composition, but if we take our lives ‘lightly’, we won’t notice the difference. As a doctor, I prescribe that we should smile every minute and laugh p.r.n. (as needed).
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