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Show Laughter is good medicine "Laughter is good medicine," says Reed Stoddard, clinical social worker with the McKay-Dee Institute Insti-tute for Behavioral Medicine. Stoddard outlined its beneficial effects to a group of some 140 attending a light lunch and learning session at the Institute. He said people are searching for humor. We pay comedians to make us laugh; newspapers have pages of comics; newscasters sign off with the lighter side; the most popular video rentals are comedies com-edies ; even the court jester of old is evidence society is looking for a good laugh. And rightly so, says Stoddard. Laughter relieves stress, fights depression, de-pression, increases pain tolerance, and preliminary studies indicate that "gut" laughter actually reduces re-duces immune suppressors, making mak-ing it easier to bounce back from illness. |