Laughter is the best medicine

Just for laughs – try this trick for controlling diabetes

We’ve all heard the old saying “Laughter is the best medicine,” right?

I’ve believed in this concept for years – as have many of my contemporaries in both alternative and mainstream medicine. Whether it’s from stress relief, the release of endorphins, or through some other as yet undocumented mechanism, laughter is thought to aid in circulation, heighten immune response, and even lower blood pressure

And now it’s been proven to help in controlling a rampant disease that’s no laughing matter in American culture: Adult-onset diabetes.

Yes, you read that correctly – laughter can help keep diabetes under control, according to some recent Japanese research. The study tested the post-meal insulin response in two groups of diabetic patients – one that watched a comedy show during dinner, while the other was subjected to a video of a boring lecture

Guess which group registered lower blood glucose levels after putting down their forks (or chopsticks)? That’s right – the laughers processed the sugar in their meals better than their yuk-less counterparts.

Why? The study’s authors couldn’t say. Some speculated that it was from the simple expenditure of energy inherent to laughing, while others thought the chuckles might have stimulated the test subjects’ neuro-endocrine system, which aids in blood sugar regulation

But really, who cares how it works? It’s the first laugh-worthy news I’ve heard in a long time when it comes to this rampant killer.

Acquitting the pork,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD