Laughter can heal
"One day , I had bare feet and no way to get shoes . I went to the chief of Kufah in a state of great misery. And then I saw a man who had no feet. I turned to God to give thanks , spread , and now bore with my bare feet with patience. "
Golistan Saadi ( Persian poet of the thirteenth century).
Dear readers , dear reader,
From all the research I have done on the healing ability of laughter , no history exceeds that of Norman Cousins .
Okay , I already know some will write to tell me that this story is anecdotal or even that it is exaggerated .
Nevertheless, this case illustrates a phenomenon that I think is much more common than they say : a patient decides to take control and radically change their attitudes towards the disease. And now firmly installed in the pilot's seat , finally holding the levers of his own life, he suddenly met - and inexplicably - to get better.
A do we need to believe in miracles to accept it ? I'm sure not.
That is why I decided to tell the story of Norman Cousins, according to the story he was himself in his book "How I cured by laughter "[1] .An " incurable " disease
Norman Cousins was a very well-known editor of the Saturday Review American journalist .
In 1964, his doctors told him he was suffering from ankylosing spondylitis . It is an incurable disease of the spine causing pain in the lower back and joint stiffness . Tendons, ligaments and joints calcify . Ultimately, the vertebrae form a single block ...
This disease is very painful, but no treatment except painkillers , whose side effects can be daunting . Norman Cousins even said that his doctors did not give him 1 chance in 500 to survive . [2]
Faced with this bleak future , Norman Cousins embarked on his own research. It was indeed a medical training, having been an assistant professor at the School of Medicine at UCLA [ 3], and he made three things absolutely contrary to the advice of his doctors.
1) Taking vitamin C in high doses
The first was to thoroughly investigate all medications he was taking. He discovered that his treatments exhausted its reserves of vitamin C and , based on his own research , he convinced his doctors to stop giving him more drugs and inject him very high doses of vitamin C, which it considered they were his last hope .
2) Leave the anxiety hospital environment
Then, Cousins decided to leave the hospital and move into a hotel room. He believed that hospitals, with their deplorable food, their questionable hygiene , culture of medicalization , their atmosphere of negativity and systematic disruption of sleep rhythm patients were "not places made for really sick people " according to its terms.
3 ) Watch funny movies
Third thing Cousins procured a projector and a stock of comedy films, including many " Hidden Cameras " and the films of the Marx Brothers. During his first night at the hotel , he laughed so much watching these films he then managed to sleep several hours without pain . Laughter had stimulated production of endorphins , chemicals to anesthetic effects produced naturally by the body.
When the pain awoke , he put movies on the road and, after a good laugh , managed to fall asleep again .
He says that by measuring its sedimentation rate, a routine examinations performed during a blood test and to measure inflammation and infections, he observed that the rate decreased by 5 points whenever one of those movies watched .
miraculous healing
He could soon stop all drugs except vitamin C and laughter.
He described the weeks that followed as a long course of laughter that brought little by little health. He was able to resume his work at the Saturday Review , as he continued his original treatment.
It is obvious that the success of this treatment has many held in the same attitude as Norman Cousins decided to adopt .
In addition to keeping and stimulate its ability to laugh, this is a man who believed deeply in love , faith, and positive attitude towards life (he was a fierce fighter nuclear disarmament ) . His strength of character and will to live certainly contributed to his miraculous healing.Trigger the placebo effect voluntarily
While in the hospital, he theorized that if negative emotions like anger and frustration can affect the health , it could also mean that, conversely , positive emotions such as joy and laughter could have the opposite effect .
Some obviously speak placebo effect . But Cousins has asked himself the question. He concludes that creativity is the central cause of the placebo effect : it triggers a chain of events in the body that restores balance (homeostasis ) and the sense of well -being.
It can therefore be , by the effect of the will trigger a placebo effect , causing healing.Relationship of trust with the doctor
Finally he attributed much of his success to his very close and friendly relationship with her doctor , who supported his approach with both hands and encouraged in his experimental approach despite the fact that it did not fit preconceived ideas of medicine .
The importance of the patient / physician relationship is almost universally recognized and verified statistically as the most important factor in the chances of cure in psychoanalysis. But the thing could it also be true in the world of medicine ? The case of Norman Cousins helps make us think.
The most fascinating aspect of the story of Norman Cousins was his ability to laugh despite intense pain and , most likely, a great anguish , which seizes all persons to whom they are ad are suffering from an incurable disease.
But he made it a point of honor to laugh until it hurt the stomach, this inextinguishable laughter that would trigger up to a powerful painkiller effect. In his book, he cites numerous thinkers who , through the ages , as he had done the healing ability of laughter , and this list includes the English philosopher Francis Bacon, Immanuel Kant , Sigmund Freud and Dr. Albert Schweitzer . No doubt this list could be much longer.
Because ultimately , laughter could is a way for human beings out of itself, its limitations, and to find the route that brought him back to health. That is why the trip Norman Cousins who, through laughter , brought him back to life can be for us all a source of inspiration.
Your Health
Jean- Marc Dupuis
Golistan Saadi ( Persian poet of the thirteenth century).
Dear readers , dear reader,
From all the research I have done on the healing ability of laughter , no history exceeds that of Norman Cousins .
Okay , I already know some will write to tell me that this story is anecdotal or even that it is exaggerated .
Nevertheless, this case illustrates a phenomenon that I think is much more common than they say : a patient decides to take control and radically change their attitudes towards the disease. And now firmly installed in the pilot's seat , finally holding the levers of his own life, he suddenly met - and inexplicably - to get better.
A do we need to believe in miracles to accept it ? I'm sure not.
That is why I decided to tell the story of Norman Cousins, according to the story he was himself in his book "How I cured by laughter "[1] .An " incurable " disease
Norman Cousins was a very well-known editor of the Saturday Review American journalist .
In 1964, his doctors told him he was suffering from ankylosing spondylitis . It is an incurable disease of the spine causing pain in the lower back and joint stiffness . Tendons, ligaments and joints calcify . Ultimately, the vertebrae form a single block ...
This disease is very painful, but no treatment except painkillers , whose side effects can be daunting . Norman Cousins even said that his doctors did not give him 1 chance in 500 to survive . [2]
Faced with this bleak future , Norman Cousins embarked on his own research. It was indeed a medical training, having been an assistant professor at the School of Medicine at UCLA [ 3], and he made three things absolutely contrary to the advice of his doctors.
1) Taking vitamin C in high doses
The first was to thoroughly investigate all medications he was taking. He discovered that his treatments exhausted its reserves of vitamin C and , based on his own research , he convinced his doctors to stop giving him more drugs and inject him very high doses of vitamin C, which it considered they were his last hope .
2) Leave the anxiety hospital environment
Then, Cousins decided to leave the hospital and move into a hotel room. He believed that hospitals, with their deplorable food, their questionable hygiene , culture of medicalization , their atmosphere of negativity and systematic disruption of sleep rhythm patients were "not places made for really sick people " according to its terms.
3 ) Watch funny movies
Third thing Cousins procured a projector and a stock of comedy films, including many " Hidden Cameras " and the films of the Marx Brothers. During his first night at the hotel , he laughed so much watching these films he then managed to sleep several hours without pain . Laughter had stimulated production of endorphins , chemicals to anesthetic effects produced naturally by the body.
When the pain awoke , he put movies on the road and, after a good laugh , managed to fall asleep again .
He says that by measuring its sedimentation rate, a routine examinations performed during a blood test and to measure inflammation and infections, he observed that the rate decreased by 5 points whenever one of those movies watched .
miraculous healing
He could soon stop all drugs except vitamin C and laughter.
He described the weeks that followed as a long course of laughter that brought little by little health. He was able to resume his work at the Saturday Review , as he continued his original treatment.
It is obvious that the success of this treatment has many held in the same attitude as Norman Cousins decided to adopt .
In addition to keeping and stimulate its ability to laugh, this is a man who believed deeply in love , faith, and positive attitude towards life (he was a fierce fighter nuclear disarmament ) . His strength of character and will to live certainly contributed to his miraculous healing.Trigger the placebo effect voluntarily
While in the hospital, he theorized that if negative emotions like anger and frustration can affect the health , it could also mean that, conversely , positive emotions such as joy and laughter could have the opposite effect .
Some obviously speak placebo effect . But Cousins has asked himself the question. He concludes that creativity is the central cause of the placebo effect : it triggers a chain of events in the body that restores balance (homeostasis ) and the sense of well -being.
It can therefore be , by the effect of the will trigger a placebo effect , causing healing.Relationship of trust with the doctor
Finally he attributed much of his success to his very close and friendly relationship with her doctor , who supported his approach with both hands and encouraged in his experimental approach despite the fact that it did not fit preconceived ideas of medicine .
The importance of the patient / physician relationship is almost universally recognized and verified statistically as the most important factor in the chances of cure in psychoanalysis. But the thing could it also be true in the world of medicine ? The case of Norman Cousins helps make us think.
The most fascinating aspect of the story of Norman Cousins was his ability to laugh despite intense pain and , most likely, a great anguish , which seizes all persons to whom they are ad are suffering from an incurable disease.
But he made it a point of honor to laugh until it hurt the stomach, this inextinguishable laughter that would trigger up to a powerful painkiller effect. In his book, he cites numerous thinkers who , through the ages , as he had done the healing ability of laughter , and this list includes the English philosopher Francis Bacon, Immanuel Kant , Sigmund Freud and Dr. Albert Schweitzer . No doubt this list could be much longer.
Because ultimately , laughter could is a way for human beings out of itself, its limitations, and to find the route that brought him back to health. That is why the trip Norman Cousins who, through laughter , brought him back to life can be for us all a source of inspiration.
Your Health
Jean- Marc Dupuis
FROM
