LAUGHTER--INTERNAL JOGGING

I didn't know I'd lose my hair when the treatment plan for GBM brain cancer became radiation only. I naively thought chemo did that.

Now, after two weeks of daily radiation zaps (with four more weeks to go), I feel deep-fried and over-microwaved. My head feels like a giant marble with grits inside. If I lie flat on my pillow, the left side hurts (how can something as hard as a marble hurt?). It also feels like I'm lying on a child-size inflatable beach ring: my head flops, so I have to lie on my right side only.

I have thick, bushy hair and cut it myself, like a hairdresser taught me years ago. Every six weeks or so, I also thin out the extra bushy areas with a special cutting technique.

The first of this week, I thinned out two areas.

That night, my hair started falling out.

What can you do but laugh?

Haha.

It is so true what the Bible says: "A merry heart does good like a medicine."

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TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Laughter can rescue you from almost any embarrassing situation.

2. A sense of humor will help you deal with the pressures of daily life.

3. A sick person who laughs is healthier.

ANSWERS:

1. True. Behavioral scientists at Michigan State University and Florida State University found that humor can serve as a face-saving device as well as a way to avoid losing one's composure when an embarrassing moment occurs.

One time Milton and I were listening to a well-known minister preach, and his false teeth jumped out of his mouth. He managed to catch them in his hands, and we could tell he was mortified as his face turned purple, and we were all embarrassed for him and with him, and he turned around with his back to us and put them back in, and then he turned back around and continued to preach, stammering and stuttering from his embarrassment. If only he'd laughed and said a funny quip, it would've helped him, and it would've helped us.

Maybe he should've said, "My teeth are like stars. They come out at night!"

Haha.

2. True. Researchers at the University of California examined the role of laughter as a stress reducer. A six-week study showed that people under stress who were taught the physiological and psychological benefits of laughter learned to handle the stress better. Another study at the University of Waterloo proved that having a sense of humor reduces the harmful effects of stressful experiences.

3. True. Laughter stimulates the brain to produce hormones that trigger the release of endorphins, natural opiates that can reduce pain or discomfort.

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Internal Joggin: the very act of laughter is good exercise. In an average laugh, the diaphragm, thorax, abdomen, heart, lungs, and possibly even the liver get a brief workout. If the laughter is especially vigorous, it reflexes muscles in the face, arms, and legs, and can relieve boredom, tension, guilt, depression, headaches, and backaches.

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Laughing 100 times a day is equivalent to 10 minutes of exercise on a rowing machine.

The average 4-year-old laughs 400 times a day.

The average adult only laughs 15 times a day.

So laugh more!

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You can raise your humor quotient (learn to laugh more) if you aren't someone who laughs much. 1) Learn to look at the funny side of things. 2) Lighten up. Just flat laugh more. 3) Read joke books. My Aunt Jo and Uncle Joe used to sit together in the evenings and read joke books to each other. Since Aunt Jo told me that a long time ago, I started collected joke books. Some of them are church-based and are a scream--at what happens in churches.

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Laugh!