By Lim Wey Wen

IT is amazing what laughter can do for us.

Earlier studies on laughter first suggested it could relieve pain, facilitate digestion and improve memory. Now, with more sophisticated tools, we can add these benefits to that list: it boosts our immune system, reduces levels of stress hormones and relaxes muscles throughout the body.

But science has sought to explain what we already know: laughter makes us feel better and happier.

"Natural laughter happens when everything is going right, or when you are in love, or in awe. When every cell in your body is tingling with excitement, joy and fun, you smile and laugh for no reason," says Mahes Karuppiah-Quillen, Malaysia's first laughter therapist who is now a Melbourne-based naturopathic doctor specialising in stress management using laughter.

Of course, laughter and smiles are easy to come by when everything is going on well. But we often fail to realise that it is when life hands us lemons that we need to laugh more. When the going gets tough, the tough need to start laughing.

How laughter helps

The motion of laughter activates our emotions and these emotions travel up the spinal cord and stimulates the hypothalamus to release endorphins - happy brain chemicals that gives us a sense of wellbeing, says Mahes.

Just a simple smile can do wonders.

The act of lifting your cheek muscles is enough to stimulate the brain to release endorphins, Mahes explains, as the association of the movement with previous incidents of smiling and laughing have been recorded in the brain. Smiling activates those memories and produces similar uplifting effects.

Dr Robert Holden, founder of the Laughter Clinic and Happiness Project in the UK, explains it further in his articles Laughter is the best Medicine, "Laughter has a two-step action on the physical body: step one, it stimulates; step two, it relaxes. During laughter, the body is stimulated and exercised; after laughter, the body relaxes and calms itself.

"Laughter is often, therefore, a most effective method for inducing physical and mental relaxation - laughter is a medicinal relaxant."

However, despite knowing that laughter is good for us, we seem to laugh less as we age. According to a study by psychiatrist and Stanford University Medical School Emeritus Prof William Fry, even during the economic depression in the 50s, the average kindergarten student laughed 300 times a day. Yet, adults at that time averaged just 17 laughs a day.

Mahes explains, "People often ask me why we need to learn to laugh. The reason is at this moment, we are subjected to more stress, and we need to find a way to manage it. That's why we need a tool to help us reduce our load."

Many ways to laugh

The good thing about laughter is you don't have to rely on natural laughter to reap the benefits. You don't even need jokes or funny movies to laugh.

"The body does not know the difference between real laughter and fake laughter. So you could fake it till you make it," says Mahes.

In her session on laughter therapy at the Health and Happiness Festival held in Kuala Lumpur recently, Mahes taught a roomful of adults exactly that.

Starting with a series of laughter exercises, Mahes managed to get all of us laughing along, no jokes involved. In the end, what started as self-induced laughter ended as heartfelt belly laughter, and looking at each other's hilarious antics just kept the laughs going.

It doesn't matter where you are or what you do, because there are laughter exercises for every occasion.

If you are stressed out in the office, you could try some of these:

Handphone laughter: Pretend you are talking to a friend on the phone and laugh out loud.

Silent laughter: Put on a smile and try to laugh without emitting a sound.

Humming laughter: Laugh with a hum, like you are suppressing laughter.

If you are alone, in the company of laughing buddies, or in the bathroom with the shower, try:

Hearty laughter: Put your hands in the air and go HA-HA-HA!

Lion laughter: With your eyes wide open, stick out your tongue, bare your claws and roar with laughter! This works really well with a mirror or a partner.

"Fifteen minutes of laughter is enough to energise you throughout the day," says Mahes.

"Even breaks of two to three minutes of laughter throughout the day would augur well for handling stress at the office or at home," she adds.

Instead of starting your day with groans and complaints, why not start with a dose of positive energy through laughter? The reason is simple: when you start with good energy, you will be able to meet the challenges of the day better and positive, life-enhancing energy will bring out the best in you.

Therapeutic laughter

The interest in laughter as a therapeutic tool started with Norman Cousins' experience with ankylosing spondylitis - a painful, chronic inflammatory condition he overcame with high doses of vitamin C and laughter induced by Marx Brothers' comedy films.

He described the secret to his pain-relief in his book Anatomy of an Illness, "I made the joyous discovery that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep."

Since then, many have embarked on the use of laughter to alleviate pain, overcome depression and improve the general well-being of people around them.

One of the most well known examples is that of Hunter "Patch" Adams, an American physician and professional clown who clowns about in hospitals, orphanages and prisons, bringing people joy and pain-relief.

A local jester, Iskandar Syah Ismail, has also embarked on a hospital clown training programme to train clowns to make patients laugh.

In fact, many doctors in hospitals worldwide have also started laughter therapy programmes in their wards, especially for patients facing chronic or debilitating diseases.

Their methods may be different - some involve clowns, some have their patients telling each other jokes, and some use funny videos and comics - but the main goal is to make their patients laugh. As patients who laugh tend to tolerate pain better, sleep better and feel less anxious, the acceptance of laughter as a form of therapy is increasing.

It is far-fetched to say you can laugh your cancer away, but medical experts emphasise that laughter and other complementary therapies such as massage, acupuncture and meditation can be effective in helping relieve the anxiety that often accompanies disease.

Dr Holden attested to that when he wrote, "For so long, the medical profession has tended to dismiss laughter as being something that merely makes people feel good. The whole point is, however, that 'merely' making people feel good is an essential requirement of health, happiness and wholeness - when we feel well, we tend to be well. This has become increasingly apparent with the advent of modern mind/body research, psychosomatic medicine and psychoneuroimmunology research."

Laugh with caution

Okay, so laughing is good for you, but can you go overboard with laughter?

Mahes says there is no limit (and certainly, no side effects) to laughter, but people with certain conditions should be cautious when they participate in laughing exercises that can be quite rigorous at times.

You might want to stay away from laughing exercises immediately after surgery, as it would probably leave you in pain and distress when your abdominal muscles start their contractions during laughter.

And because laughter also increases abdominal pressure, people with hernia and haemorrhoids should also be careful not to exacerbate their condition with excessive laughter.

The same could be said for those with heart disease and exercise-induced asthma.

"It is to be treated like any other aerobic exercise and all the cautions and permissions from your physician apply," says Mahes.

Besides the need to be cautious for those with the above conditions, there is no stopping anyone from having a good laugh. "It takes nothing to laugh, but laughter gives you everything you need to have good health," says Mahes.

This story was first published in The Star/ANN.