Page 48 - Susan Taylor

Laugh!

By Karyn Buxxman

concern. Consider the following joke:
Two elderly ladies meet at the market after not seeing each
other for some time. One asked how the other's husband
was doing. "Oh! Rodger died last week. He went out to the
garden to dig up a cabbage for dinner, had a heart attack and
dropped dead right there in the vegetable patch."
"Oh dear, I'm sorry," replied her friend, "What did you do?"
"Opened a can of peas instead."

There are several ways this joke can be read or interpret-
ed, including as an expression of someone’s fear that they
could actually die from this heart condition and that no one
would miss them.
There’s a conversation stopper for you.
There are a lot of cultural rules and social habits working
together to keep many of us from comfortably expressing
our fears directly – especially intensely personal fears.
Everyone has their own boundaries, and these boundaries
are often defined by the social group we belong to. In your
social circle, it might be okay to joke about your inexpli-
cable fear of lawn flamingos; expressing anxiety about our
48 limited lifespan often is not. That’s because we’re all ines-
capably mortal, but most of us can control our exposure to
lawn flamingos if we so wish.
Let the Arrhythmia Move You
Humor gives us a way to say what we’re feeling – but with
some emotional distance. The joke might lead to a deeper
conversation; it might just result in laughter; it may provoke
February was American Heart Month. Heart disease is absolutely an argument. If the person we tell the joke to reacts badly to our
no joke. As the #1 killer of women, heart disease presents one of humor, chances are that this is not the right person to get into a
our greatest health challenges, both individually and as a society.
What should we be doing about this? deeper, more personal conversation with. We can use jokes as a
Well, for one thing, we should be laughing. For a long time, we’ve way to test the waters.
known about the impact of a healthy diet, exercise, and staying Trying to keep your emotions bottled up – never expressing them –
is an inherently stressful condition. Again, this is not great for your
smoke-free on heart health. Scientists known as psychoneuroim- heart health. Humor can be the safety valve: joking about your feel-
munologists (which is also the ULTIMATE Scrabble word, just say-
ing!) have been steadily accumulating the evidence that laughter ings is a socially acceptable way to vent. Even listening to and ap-
decreases blood pressure, increases circulation and increases the preciating someone else’s humor will help bring your stress levels
elasticity of the inner lining of the blood vessels. Enjoying humor is down. We all have those days when it seems like you can actually
feel your blood pressure rising point by point. Those are the days
a valuable addition to any heart health routine. you want to make a point of watching your favorite comedy or call-
Laughter is good for us physically, and it’s good for our emotional
and mental health, as well. Best of all, humor is readily available, ing your funniest friend.
has no side-effects, and is totally fat free. Adding laughter to your If you’re going to do just one thing to improve your heart health this
day can be the easiest part of your heart health routine: it’s less month, you should definitely see your doctor & follow their recom-
mendations. (Yes, that’s actually two things. I’m a humor expert,
work than exercise and more fun than eating a high-fiber diet! not a mathematician!) But if you’re already doing that, make today
“If we took what we now know about laughter and bottled it, it
would require FDA approval.” the day you add regular laughter to your heart health routine. You’ll
~Dr. Lee Berk have lots of fun, you’ll feel great, and you’ll actually be doing your
One important way we can use humor is to express anxiety. When heart lots of good.
we’ve been told by our doctors that our heart health isn’t what is Karyn Buxman, RN, MSN is a neurohumorist, author, and past president of
should be – or even if you just suspect that maybe things aren’t the Association for Applied & Therapeutic Humor. When she’s not on the
100% okay – this stresses us out. road speaking to business leaders, healthcare professionals, and patients’
The point in time where you are worrying about your heart health is groups, you can find her on the beach near La Jolla having more fun than
NOT the point in time when you want to be increasing your stress one would believe possible. Can’t find her there? You can connect with
intake! If anything, you want to reduce stress levels. Laughter is a Karyn on her website, www.karynbuxman.com or on Twitter at @KarynBux-
great way to bring stress levels down. Sometimes we find our- man
selves joking about the very things that are causing us worry and