Dr Muiris Houston: Is laughter the best medicine?

Smile and the world smiles with you. But is laughter the best medicine? I have certainly found it a useful port of call during some bumpy parts of life’s journey.

For example, do you dislike the loss of evening light that came with the weekend’s annual clock change? The sudden push into dark evenings feels like an intrusion – a discomfiting “out-of-synchronicity” – that lasts about a week or so. I find it helps to seek out humour at this time. Watching a Billy Connolly DVD or checking out YouTube clips of the late Robin Williams usually does the trick.

Several theories have sought to explain what makes something funny enough to make us laugh. These include transgression (something forbidden), puncturing a sense of superiority (mockery), and incongruity –the presence of two incompatible meanings in the same situation.

As he was being carried out of his house on a stretcher after a crazed fan stabbed him, the former Beatle George Harrison asked a newly hired employee: ‘So what do you think of the job so far?’

Writing in The Conversation recently, Carlo Bellieni, professor of paediatrics at the University of Siena in Italy, reported on a study he undertook of all the available literature on laughter and humour published in English over the last ten years. “My study produced one new possible explanation: laughter is a tool nature may have provided us with to help us survive,” he writes.

‘I hugged my kids and had a Guinness at the finish line’: Meet the woman who smashed the record for running the length of Ireland

---

Claire Byrne and Mary Lou McDonald come unexpectedly close to a shouting match

---

September, Blackrock, review: We need more walk-in restaurants in scenic spots like this - absolutely delightful

---

Your EV questions answered: How long do electric vehicle batteries last and are they expensive to replace?

---

His theory raises the possibility that laughter may have been preserved by natural selection throughout past millenniums. Could laughter have been used to show others that a fight or flight response is not required and that a perceived threat has passed?

Laughing is also contagious: it unites us, makes us more sociable and signals the end of fear or worry. Laughter is life affirming. It creates bonds and increases intimacy with others. Chuckles and belly laughs seldom happen when we are alone, supporting their strong social role.

We can strip back laughter to a three-step process, Bellieni says. “First, it needs a situation that seems odd and induces a sense of incongruity (bewilderment). Second, the worry or stress the incongruous situation has provoked must be worked out and overcome (resolution). Third, the actual release of laughter acts as an all-clear siren to alert bystanders that they are safe (relief).”

Laughter relies on complex combinations of facial muscles, often involving movement of the eyes, head and shoulders. The muscular exertions appear to trigger an increase in endorphins, the feel-good brain chemicals.

Laughter is an intensely physical experience. After the brain has processed the incoming signals, it triggers the contraction of 15 muscles in the face. At the chortling stage, the voice box gets partly covered, leading to irregular breathing. And, in those all-too-rare moments of helpless laughter, our tear ducts are stimulated and our faces redden.

Laughter is, at the very least, one of our best medicines

Laughter activates multiple regions of the brain: the motor cortex, which controls muscles; the frontal lobe, which helps you understand context; and the limbic system, which modulates positive emotions. Turning all these circuits on strengthens neural connections and helps a healthy brain co-ordinate its activity. Humour can lower blood pressure and activate our immune systems, and it helps us deal with anxiety and depression.

In many cases, humour appears to serve as a coping mechanism in the face of tragedy or misfortune. In 1999, as he was being carried out of his house on a stretcher after a crazed fan stabbed him, the former Beatle George Harrison asked a newly hired employee: “So what do you think of the job so far?” On his death bed, Voltaire allegedly told a priest who was exhorting him to renounce Satan: “This is no time for making new enemies.”

[ ‘I have a hard time remembering things.’ What is brain fog and how can I treat it? ]

So is laughter the best medicine? Voltaire, again, said “the art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease”. Laughter is, at the very least, one of our best medicines.

I’ll leave you with this. Have you heard about the wine which cures incontinence?

It’s made from a new grape variety – Pinot More.

Have a good week and keep laughing.