CIV 2018-Lesson 3 - Why Is Laughter the Best Medicine

LESSON 3: Why Is Laughter the Best Medicine

§  Answer the following questions in Spanish.

How often do you laugh?

1.    Do you like movies like Patch Adams?

2.    Do you think laughter can cure illnesses?

3.    Do you think we are laughing less than when we were children?

§   Read the following article called “Why Is Laughter the Best Medicine” and then complete the diagram that follows.

Why Is Laughter the Best Medicine

A group of adults were lying in a circle on the floor listening to a recording of “The Laughing Policeman”. At first everyone felt ridiculous, and only the odd nervous ones giggled, but suddenly the laughter became real and quickly spread around the room.

Doctors were starting to believe that laughter not only improved your state of mind, but actually affected your entire physical well-being. The people lying in a circle were attending a workshop to learn the art of laughter.

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 had a similar effect to physical exercise. It speeds up the heart rate, increased blood pressure and quickens breathing. Moreover, it makes our facial and stomach muscles work. Fry thought that laughter was a type of jogging on the spot. Laughter can even provide a kind of pain relief. Fry had proved that laughter produced endorphins – chemicals in the body that relieve pain.

Researchers from Texas divided forty university students into four groups. 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.

Patch Adams is both a doctor and a performing clown in Virginia, America. He was convinced that humor was a part of medical consultation. “There’s evidence to suggest that laughter stimulates the immune system”, said Adams, “yet hospitals and clinics are well-known for their depressing atmospheres”. Adams practised what he preached. The real one was wearing his waist-length hair in a ponytail all the time and also had a handlebar moustache on his face -not like the one in the movie. He usually put on a red nose when he was seeing his patients.

§   What does the text say about the following concepts?

“The Laughing Policeman”
Workshop
William Fry
Pain Relief
Researchers from Texas
Patch Adams