How does stress affect health ?

Why laughter is the best medicine

In what part of the text can you find the following information :

1) Some doctors make humor a part of their medical consultation;

2) Laughter affects the state of our body like running or quick walking;

3) The mankind is losing its ability to laugh;

4) Laughter is an effective painkiller;

5) Laughter therapy in action;

6) Laughter improves both our mental and physical condition

a) A group of adults are lying in a circle on the floor listening to a recording of The Laughing Policeman. At first everyone feels ridiculous and there's only the odd nervous giggle, but suddenly the laughter becomes real, it quickly spreads around the room until everyone is infected by it.

b) Doctors are starting to believe that laughter not only improves your state of mind but actually affects your entire physical well-being. The people lying in a circle are attending a workshop to learn the forgotten art of laughter.

Britain's first laughter therapist, Robert Holden says: 'Instinctively we know that laughing helps us feel healthy and alive. Each time we laugh we feel better and more content.'

c) A French newspaper found that in 1930 the French laughed on average for nineteen minutes per day. By 1930 this had fallen to six minutes. Eighty per cent of the people questioned said that they would like to laugh more. Other research suggests that children laugh on average about 400 times a day, but by the time they reach adulthood this has been reduced to about fifteen times.

d) William Fry - a psychiatrist from California - studied the effects of laughter on. the body. He got patients to watch Laurel and Hardy films, and monitored their blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tone. He found that laughter has a similar effect to physical exercise. It speeds up the heart rate, increases blood pressure and quickens breathing. Fry thinks laughter is a type of jogging on the spot.

e) Laughter can even provide a kind of pain relief. Fry has proved that laughter produces endorphins -chemicals in the body that relieve pain.

Researchers from Texas tested this. The first group listened to a funny cassette for twenty minutes, the second listened to a cassette intended to relax them, the third heard an informative tape, while the fourth group listened to no tape at all. Researchers found that if they produced pain in the students, those who had listened to the humorous tape could tolerate the discomfort for much longer.

f) Patch Adams is both a doctor and a performing clown in Virginia, America. 'There's evidence to suggest that laughter stimulates the immune system,' says Adams, yet hospitals and clinics_are well-known for their depressing atmospheres.' Adams practises what he preaches. He wears his waist-length hair in a ponytail and also has a handlebar moustache. He usually puts on a red nose when seeing patients.

How does stress affect health ?

Stress is perceived via the brain and sent to three specific parts of the body :

• The 'action' muscles, arm and legs muscles for example
• The vital organs like the heart, lungs etc.
• The glands and parts of the brain responsible for altering the biochemistry within the body.

In this way, the body prepares for the classic 'fight or flight' response to a situation. The muscles are primed for fighting or running. The heart beats faster to supply blood, oxygen and energy to the body. The glands, notably the adrenal glands produce adrenaline, a sort of 'turbo boost' for the body in a stressful situation.

This response is said to have evolved during the time when mankind had to fight to protect his territory or possessions or run from dangerous animals or foe. The response has stayed with man in the modern age but does not work as well when the stressful incidents are internal and chronic rather than external and intermittent. So how does this stress affect the health ?

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 1108