The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/46670
Laughing is good for your health? It's no joke But while giggling is certainly a great distraction when you're hurt or feeling low, I can't help but wonder whether the old adage "Laughter is the best medicine" is true: Can laughter really have a positive impact on health? There is a growing body of research indicating that a good guffaw may improve immune function, help lower blood pres- sure, boost mood and reduce stress and depression. And de- spite a dearth of more rigorous, long-term studies, the sum of these findings is compelling, says cardiologist Michael Miller, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who has researched the topic. "We don't have any clinical outcome evidence to show that laughter will reduce heart attacks or improve overall survival. However, we do have a number of studies that have shown that there is a potential upside, in terms of vascular benefits and also overall health," he explains. "These findings certainly sup- port laughter as a reasonable prescription for heart health and health in general, especially since there's really no downside." A new study from Oxford University supports a long-held theory that laughter triggers an increase in endorphins, the brain chemicals that can help you feel good, distract you from pain and maybe deliver other health benefits. The study reports on six experiments in which people watched television sitcoms or a live comedy performance, either alone or with others. The participants were then sub- jected to various measures that prompt discomfort, including wearing an ice-cold sleeve or a tight blood-pressure cuff and squatting against a wall for long periods. In all cases, laugh- ing with buddies for just 15 minutes resulted in an average 10 percent increase in pain threshold. A change in affect alone — in other words, getting happy but not laughing out loud — did not have a significant impact on pain sensations. According to lead author Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary anthropologist, these results back up prior research suggest- ing that people who laugh need less pain medication after surgery. She explains that if laughing "triggers endorphin activation, then it may have direct [health] benefits, because there is a possibility that endorphins help to 'tune' the immune system." Still, we're not just talking about a snicker here and there. The key is that real, true, unforced laughter is "an energetic, stressful activity that stirs up all of our physiological systems . . .involving strong vocalization, an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and muscle contractions all over the body," says Robert R. Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the author of "Laughter: A Scientific Investigation." He explains that modern laughter of the "ha-ha" variety evolved from the "pant-pant" of primates and early humans, which he says is "really the sound of rough-and-tumble play." Indeed, the new Oxford study found that endorphins are released only when "we 'laugh till it hurts,' " meaning we end up running out of breath or physically exhausted, says Dun- bar. "It is only full belly laughs that do this, not polite titters." But before you work up a new stand-up routine, Provine points out that laughter often has little to do with jokes. "Real laughter is unconscious — you don't decide to laugh, it just happens — and if you look at what people are doing before or during a laugh, it's usually not associated with jokes," he says. Dunbar says the most important benefit of laughter may be that it brings people together, which is clearly good for emo- tional health. "When you laugh, you're almost always in the presence of another person, whether they're physically present or imagined on radio or TV," agrees Provine, who has shown that laughter in social settings is 30 times as common as when a person is alone. He says that those studying the effects of laughter need to tease out "to what extent any health benefits of laughter are associated with the social context of laughter." People are far more likely to giggle when others do (which explains laugh tracks on television sitcoms), he says. "It could be that it's the playful interaction with friends, family and lovers that makes the difference [in health measures], and not the physical act of laughter itself." For now, I intend to keep using the tickle cure on my kids — and I no longer feel guilty about watching those YouTube videos of babies guffawing. In fact, I will no longer feel guilty about inflicting them on others, either. Because who can't use a few more laughs in her life, regardless of how or why or even if they make you healthier? The Washington Post Google+ and its many pluses Google+ did not have an easy entrance into the tech world. Launched in June to select users and in September to the wider public, it was immediately labeled by technology writers as Google's attempt at a "Facebook killer." Dogged by comparisons to the social media giant, Google+ limped along, losing early adopters accustomed to Facebook's crowded, cozy haunts. Then there are reports from the inside: Google employees have had gripes. Two weeks ago, Google engineer Steve Yegge posted a long rant to what he thought was a Google employees "circle," the term Google chose for private groups. But Yegge had accidently broadcast to the public that Google+ was a "pathetic afterthought," letting the whole world in on his concerns about his employer. I can't say that I've been a fan, either. When Google+ launched, I started checking on it as part of my job, but it felt like a chore. But I was wrong. Steve Yegge was wrong. Tech writers were wrong. Four months after Google rolled out its social media site, Google+ deserves a closer look. When Facebook introduced its latest changes, it did so in part to shore up its hold on its users, offering up more options to keep them on the site. But for many of the people who already use Facebook frequently, the noise has become overwhelming. I had organized Facebook lists, hidden updates from friends friends — as an obstacle. That's the wrong way to look at it. Instead, think of the site not as a way to organize friends but as a way to organize interests, technology blogger Robert Scoble says. "Google+ is for finding, and talking with, the people who are interested in the same thing you are," Scoble wrote in a recent Google+ post defending the site. Resting on the building blocks of a search engine, Google + allows that sort of discovery to happen. You can type any topic into its search engine and you'll get a mix of links, photographs, videos and, yes, status updates from other users who've referenced the topic. You can then add those users to your circles. who were keeping me up on baby's every little development and figured out how to hide vacation photos from work col- leagues. Then Facebook asked me to organize my lists all over again, identifying my family and work colleagues and deciding what my top interests are. Facebook grew up as a way just to connect people with their friends, but now it is trying to reorganize its users around their likes and dislikes, based on algorithmic guesswork. All this might be to its detriment. By contrast, Google started out based on the ultimate system of organization: library catalogs. Google+ first asks users to determine which circles they want friends in. Many see this — and the fact that you need a Gmail address to join and find The site also allows for deeper, more focused conversa- tions to happen. Once you find those people who share your common interests, Google, which already gets an A+ in communication skills for Gmail and Gchat, created another stellar product in the Hangouts. These allow folks to gather in a private group to talk, in real time, about anything. I realized that I might be missing out on these when one of my favorite newshound college friends told me that he spends most days logged into a hangout with our five other media- focused friends. His wife actually threatened to call the others in the group to get them to stop. Although I won't be giving up my Facebook account anytime soon — I do need a place to see my cousin's baby's photos after all — there are pluses to being social in a different way. Melissa Bell, The Washington Post Nov. 3, 2011 O-Town Scene 15