OK, ladies, we’re halfway through “Pinktober,” with another two weeks left to go of all the rosy reminders to line up for the monster mammogram machine!
While breast cancer is certainly more of a tragedy than a comedy, some studies* suggest that good humor and belly laughter may not only save the day but maybe your life too.
According to Nobel Prize-winning medical researcher Dr. Otto Warburg, a strong relationship exists between the lack of oxygen in our cells and the development of cancer. His studies show that hearty laughter stimulates the release of endorphins in the brain, which oxygenates the body and deters cancer cell growth.
Humor These Tumors
Author Pam Lacko knows that all too well without knowing any science. After surviving a hysterectomy and bout of ovarian cancer, the working mom learned that breast cancer was next on her list of woes. Instead of crying and screaming, Pam decided that laughter would be a lot more fun – and healing.
Finding comedy in the face of cancer proved to be a powerful recovery elixir for Pam as she bravely grinned her way through a mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery. “I would rather have people joke with me than feel sorry for me,” she says.
That included medical staff with whom she developed buoyant relationships. On her final day of treatment, the nurses gathered round to sing Pam a victory song and posed with her for pictures.
Pam eventually turned her blog into a book called Laughing in the Face of Cancer, which remains enormously popular with cancer patients of all kinds. She writes: “Medication and treatment heal the body, but humor heals the mind.”
We totally agree. So we’ve taken a tip from Pam and collected a few cartoons and chuckles to keep your spirits up through those pancake-flattening mammograms this month.
Halloween is just around the corner, so don your witch’s hat to put a curse on cancer – or just let out a wicked witch’s cackle to humor those tumors away!
SOURCES
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/laughter-is-medicine.html
* http://www.laughteryogaamerica.com/learn/research/350-scientific-research-papers-laughter-669.php
