To stay healthy, LAUGH, LAUGH AND LAUGH.

We are discussing Dr Shahid's Six Principles of health (also known as "Preventive Holistic Lifestyle", PHL) that guarantee us a long and healthy life (as long as 100 - 125 years and even longer) without ever having to see any health care provider in our long and "healthy " journey of life.

We have already discussed the First two principles in detail (1. Balanced Diet and 2. Exercise).

We have also discussed third the Third Principle of Health (Rest, Sleep and Entertainment, RSE).


In the Entertainment we mentioned about the most important part of RSE....Laughter.

We are going discuss it in detail.

LAUGHTER


Laughter According to dictionary Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of merriment or happiness or an inward feeling of joy and pleasure (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling and other stimuli.

Inhaling nitrous oxide (laughing gas) can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter.

One must remember that laughter created under medically induced conditions (by drugs) is not proven to have any therapeutic or beneficial effects. Strong laughter ( induced under such artificial conditions) can sometimes bring an onset of tearsor, moderate muscular pain and sometimes even severe cramps. such laughter is not considered healthy. There are suggestions (though not proven) that laughter induced by drugs may cause physical, emotional and spiritual damage.

Any drug used to create artificial laughter is considered a euphoric agent. All euphoric agents cause analgesia, depersonalization, derealization, dissociation, dizziness, sound distortion of reality testing and even death if not properly supervised.

UNTIL WE HAVE ENOUGH RESEARCH TO PROVE THAT DRUG INDUCED LAUGHTER IS NOT HARMFUL, ONE MUST AVOID TAKING ANY SUCH DRUG.

Laughter is a part of human behaviour regulated by the brain. It helps humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and provides an emotional context to conversations. Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group - it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others.

Laughter is sometimes seemingly contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback. This may account in part for the popularity of laugh tracks in situation comedy television shows.

The study of humor and laughter, and its psychological and physiological effects on the human body is called gelotology.

Laughter is a behaviour expressed by all cultures from a very early age. Recently researchers have shown infants as early as 17 days old have vocal laughing sounds or spontaneous laughter.

"Laughter is a mechanism everyone has; laughter is part of universal human vocabulary. There are thousands of languages, hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone speaks laughter in pretty much the same way." Everyone can laugh. Babies have the ability to laugh before they ever speak. Children who are born blind and deaf still retain the ability to laugh. "Even apes have a form of 'pant-pant-pant' laughter."

Raju Mandhyan states "The physical and psychological benefits of laughter come second only to the physical and psychological benefits of sex."

Next we will discuss how laughter affects our physical health?

For comments and questions please write to '

syedshahidmd@yahoo.com.au