Disease, illness, and other physical and mental difficulties are serious issues which we can prevent only with awareness, sustained dedication, and conscious effort. Part of this effort should go toward making time to unwind and take a break too. In our busy world, it's sometimes easy to make fun and personal time a low priority. In addition to healthy eating and exercise, social connections have been proven to strengthen us against illness and disease. The title of this post is a quote by ee cummings and was found on the webpage for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. The CTCA offers humor therapy sessions to help cancer patients and their families use and enjoy laughter as a tool for healing. Although there is some debate in medical research as to the details and amount of benefit laughing provides in preventing and treating illness, there can be no argument that laughing decreases stress and makes us feel good. So, e mālama i kou kino and yuk it up today, and remember, "half the fun in laughter, as well as in healing, is sharing it."*For more, just web surf using "Laughter Therapy" - there are plenty of sites, but here's a small sampling:News articles:NPRABCPatch AdamsResearch articles:2007. Hayashi et al. Laughter modulates prorenin receptor gene expression in patients with type 2 diabetes.2006. Bennett and Lengacher. Humor and laughter may influence health: II.Complementary therapies and humor in a clinical population.*2003. Balick & Lee. The role of laughter in traditional medicine and its relevance to the clinical setting: healing with Ha!If you know some clean ;) jokes, websites, stories, maybe share the laughs with us on our Group page. It's about finals time, we could use some extra cheer.
Read more…
