More Laughter Benefits

Alters the flavor of your brain’s chemical stew, which is a form of “positive self-medication. It is really difficult to remain angry, fearful, or sad, if you can find something—anything—to trigger mirthful laughter. 1) It costs nothing. 2) It requires no prescription. 3) It burns calories but contains none. 4) It is cholesterol, fat, sugar, and gluten free. 5) It is convenient and easily accessible. 6) You can use it anywhere, anytime. 7) It has very few negative side effects.

 With all those benefits, what are you waiting for?

Laughter Benefits

Studies have identified a great many benefits from mirthful laugher. 1) It triggers the release of endorphins, the brain’s natural morphine. 2) It increases tolerance to pain. 3) It increases the activity of natural killer cells that help to fight viruses. 4) It liberates inerleukin-2, immune system messengers. 5) It decreases cortisol levels. 6) It relieves psychological stress. 7) It lowers muscle tension. 8) It keeps the brain alert. 8) It improves creativity and problem-solving. 9) It enhances learning and promotes retention of information. 10) It stimulates and reconnects the cerebral hemispheres that tend to become somewhat disconnected by stressors.

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Humor-Laughter Connection

A sense of humor can be honed and developed. Personally, I think that is a good idea seeing that humor can be used to trigger laughter. It is very subjective, however. What your  brain perceives as “funny,” results from a mismatch between what your brain expected and what actually happened—which triggers laughter if you are open to it. For example, you see someone walking down the street and suddenly slipping on a banana peel. Part of your brain hopes there was no injury; the other part laughs because it was so unexpected. I enjoy oxymorons. “Soft rock, good grief, sweet sorrow, jumbo shrimp, exact estimate, original copy, head butt.”

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Laughter - Left Hemisphere

The left hemisphere is quite literal in its interpretations of humor. This means it rarely gets a joke. It is, however, drawn to wordplay. No surprise, as the left hemisphere is where reading, writing, audible speech, and heard speech centers are located. For example: “The bigger the summer vacation, the harder the fall.” Interestingly, the left hemisphere creates a sense of amusement. It is quite happy to laugh at more or less anything when prompted to do so. All things being equal it can laugh mirthfully almost on demand. The right hemisphere is alert to subtleties and nuances. It quickly grasps the meaning by pulling together threads of a joke, including context, assumptions, knowledge of personal bias or prejudice. It “gets” the joke by registering the dislocation in logic that is a hallmark of most formal humor. 

Laughter Triggers

Laughter originates from Broca’s area in the left frontal lobe that produces audible speech. Laughter is a sound, a form of speech. It can be triggered by a sense of humor, the laughter of others (it is catching!), surprise, fright, emotion, and personal choice to laugh. There are many types of laughter: angry, sad, fearful, happy, sarcastic, rueful, and mirthful. Studies have shown that mirthful laughter provides the most benefits to the brain and immune system. As with a sense of humor, when and where it is appropriate to laugh is learned, starting in childhood. Lord Byron reportedly put it this way: Always laugh when you can; it is cheap medicine.

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Gelotology

Gelotology is the study of the effect of laughter on the brain and immune system. Studies show that it takes a whole brain, both right and left cerebral hemispheres to appreciate humor and to laugh. The brain function of humor is located in your right frontal lobe. Humor is the capacity to perceive or express what is funny. A sense of humor is learned in your family-of-origin—or not. It is very subjective based on each individual brain because every brain is different. An ability to understand and express humor can be suppressed in cultures or belief systems that think humor has no place in a serious lifestyle. Humor may be appreciated with or without laughter. It can also be used to trigger laughter, which provides most of the benefits.

Norman Cousins

 While I was in nursing school, I heard about Norman Cousins who had been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis and had a 1/500 chance of recovery. Did laughter really help him sleep?

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic, inflammatory disease of the spine and connective tissue, which apparently causes a great deal of pain. Cousins reported that 10 minutes of genuine belly laughter resulted in 2 hours of pain-free sleep. Reportedly, his story motivated Dr. Madan Kataria of India to form his first laughter club in 1995. Estimates are that there are 20,000 laughter clubs in 120 countries on Planet earth, helping people understand the importance that laughter can play in health and longevity. Is there something to this? As a certified laughter instructor of Dr. Kataria’s program, I am biased in favor of laughter. One of my childhood friends, Dr. Lee S. Burk, an internationally known laughter researcher, has identified myriad benefits of mirthful laughter to one’s health. Actually, I think I’ll list some researched benefits next week. Meanwhile, how many times a day do you laugh mirthfully?

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Stiff Person Syndrome, 2

The actual main cause of Stiff person syndrome remains a medical mystery although research indicates that it is the result of an autoimmune response gone awry in the brain and spinal cord. It may be associated with diabetes, as well as other autoimmune diseases such as thyroiditis, vitiligo, and pernicious anemia. It may be misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, psychosomatic illness, or anxiety and phobia. Over time there may be an abnormal, hunched-over posture. Some individuals may be too disabled to walk or move. Many fall frequently because they do not have the normal reflexes to catch themselves, which can lead to serious injuries. People with SPS may be afraid to leave the house because street noises, such as the sound of a car horn, can trigger spasms and falls. The good news is that with accurate diagnosis and proper treatment, the symptoms of SPS may be controlled.

 A new AUDIO podcast is posted every Saturday morning

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 A new VIDEO podcast is posted every Saturday morning

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Stiff Person Syndrome

I just read that famous singer Celine Dion has been diagnosed with Stiff person disease. Whatever is that? I have never even heard of it before.

Likely you never heard about Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) before, because it is a very rare neurological syndrome that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), specifically the brain and spinal cord. Fewer than 5,000 individuals in the USA are believed to have this diagnosis. Twice as many females are affected by the syndrome as compared with males. It results in increased muscle activity due to decreased inhibition or dysregulation of muscle activity by the central nervous system. Symptoms may include extreme muscle stiffness and rigidity severely impairing mobility. It can affect muscles involved with singing. Painful spasms in the trunk and limbs can generate enough force to fracture bones. Symptoms may also include a greater sensitivity to noise, touch, anxiety, and emotional distress that can trigger muscle spasms. For example, the sound of a car horn can trigger spasms and falls. More tomorrow.

Aluminum & Preventive Choices

According to some studies, the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s may be delayed by physical exercise. Apparently, perspiration is a major route of excretion of aluminum from the body—which I only learned recently. In the absence of physical exercise, females produce only half the volume of perspiration as males. This may predispose them to retain aluminum in their tissues. It is possible that this gender difference may contribute to the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease being higher in females than in males. I tend to avoid being fanatical about much of anything. I also choose to be prudent and take protective action when possible. For example, I use only aluminum-free deodorants. I still use tinfoil, but only when I am sure it does actually touch the food. I love baked potatoes of almost any type and scrub them well but do not wrap them in tinfoil. Personally, I choose to use cookware, which although it may have an aluminum core, has a protective ceramic lining. I used to bake in aluminum foil pans at holidays. Now I use Pyrex glass or protectively coated baking pans. Cumulatively, even small choices can have an effect, negative or positive. 

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Aluminum-Alzheimer’s Link

I was told that aluminum is now linked with dementia, specifically Alzheimer's disease. Have you heard about this?

Although I know of no studies that identify aluminum as the major cause of Alzheimer’s disease, aluminum has now been identified as a contributing factor in all forms of Alzheimer’s. (That may be true for other dementias as well, although the studies I know about relate to Alzheimer’s disease.) Aluminum is toxic to the brain and is said to increase the progression of the disease in people who already have Alzheimer’s. Reportedly, elevated levels of aluminum can contribute to the early onset of Alzheimer’s, especially when there is a history of major exposure to aluminum—as in those who worked in factories that produced aluminum products. More tomorrow.

Strong Emotions

What causes strong emotions?

 Emotions are fast acting chemical messengers that are designed to do several things: 1) Get your attention 2) Connect the conscious with subconscious 3) Provide you with valuable information 4) Give you energy to take appropriate action 5) Help you make moral and ethical decisions 6) Bind your perceptions to your conscious beliefs, making whatever you are thinking about seem more real at the time. If an internal or external stimulus triggered an emotion, it’s strength can depend upon whether the emotional motivator of surprise is present. Surprise increases the strength of emotions. Its strength is also impacted by your response to the emotion and the weight you give to it or to the reason the emotion was triggered.

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Whistling & Work

Some people whistle while they work. You may remember seeing the 1937 version of the animated Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and its song: whistle while you work. It suggested that whistling provided a pace for cleaning up the place. In the original Broadway production of The King and I, Gertrude Lawrence and I Whistle A Happy Tune as a way to deal with feeling afraid.  a way to cover up being afraid. In Universal Pictures, Les Misérables, the Song of Angry Men was about people who will not be slaves again. Bottom line? People whistle or sing for many different reasons, each likely as unique as each person’s brain. If you can’t whistle (and sometimes dental repairs mean that the mouth can no longer whistle), then hum. Humming can express emotion, as well, and the sounds are good for the brain.

A new AUDIO podcast is posted every Saturday morning

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A new VIDEO podcast is posted every Saturday morning

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Singing or Whistling

Do humans whistle or sing only when they are happy?

This is a very interesting question. Music Scholars refer to whistling as ‘momentary musical performing.’ Other types of this form includes drumming a beat on the desk, humming while doing housework, and singing in the shower—which was found to have a calming and refreshing effect, soothing the nerves and elevating the spirits. I used to enjoy whistling. Then the dentist talked me into getting my wisdom teeth pulled and the rest of my teeth straightened. Whistling disappeared along with my wisdom teeth. The choice of tune appears to reflect the person’s whistler’s mood, or it is chosen to enhance their mood. Whistling has been found to be something humans tend to do as a way to break up the silence, the humdrum, the normal and boring, or in self-entertainment. More tomorrow. 

Brain & Sounds

The brain learns fastest with stories—which have existed since the dawn of time. Music tells stories. Every life is a 3-D story, each unique. In a way, this story is about your brain, because everything begins in the brain, including music. It has enormous potential to change the brain and the way it functions (Mannes). Sound impacts the brain like no other art, penetrating deeply through ear structures. Multiple brain areas are activated by listening to music. Even more are stimulated by playing a musical instrument. It is impossible to listen to music and consciously override its effects on the brain and nervous system. You do not want to see something? Close your eyes. You do not like a sound? Good luck. Hard to close your ears in any natural way. Even if you succeed in blocking out the sound, you may still feel or sense the pulses of soundwaves against your skin. No central hub devoted strictly to music cognition has been identified in the brain. All brain structures that participate in the musical experience are also involved in other forms of cognition. For example, math and science. The brain functions best and most efficiently when it does one thing at a time and sticks to that task. Paying attention to music practice and performance means you are no longer paying attention to something else. Remember, attention is a limited-capacity resource in the brain.

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Understanding Music

Historically, people in many diverse cultures made independent discoveries about the ordered collections of pitches or scales used in songs. Some scales gradually stopped being used, while others became common standards. Naturally, people living in each part of the world became accustomed to the scale(s) used in their region. The scale(s) used by one culture often sounded exotic to another culture—or grated on the nerves, to put it kindly. When Westerners first heard Chinese music, including the whole-tone scale, they often found it unfamiliar and even disturbing. The complex musical rhythms from many island cultures sounded chaotic to Westerners, too, whose brains were unaccustomed to decoding differing scales and complicated rhythms. Early missionaries to Africa wrote letters home saying that, when the nationals played on their drums, it sounded like they were “not beating in time.” Later it was discovered that African rhythms involved extraordinarily complex polyrhythmic beats (e.g., two beats against three, three against four, and two against three and five). The brains of the missionaries, having never been exposed to such complex rhythms, found the beats too advanced even to follow much less understand and appreciate. The saying that you only know what you know applies to many genres in life—especially to cultural musical forms. When confronted with an unfamiliar style of music, what you dislike or fail to understand might simply be something yet unlearned by your brain. 

Music as Therapy

You cannot control everything that happens in your life. However, you can control your attitude toward an event or situation. In that moment you are mastering change rather than allowing it to master you! The goal of health-related music therapy is to promote brain-body health. Music is an effective tool for therapy as it is one of the only things in life that processes information on both sides of the brain at once. Although music therapy’s value is being recognized in new ways, it is not a modern intervention. Music is one of the oldest self-prescribed therapies in history. The story is told of a shepherd boy, David, who lived in the eleventh century BC. He was called to play his harp and sing whenever King Saul was in despair.  Over the eons, individuals have purposefully—or unwittingly—used music as therapy or as a treatment. Parents sing to their fussy offspring. Individuals play or listen to music for their own benefit or perform for the enjoyment of others.

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Music-Life Tones

 

Musical tone has been described as a sound that is characterized by a combination of pitch, duration, intensity (loudness), timbre (quality), attack, and release. Differing pitches may be altered by modulation or vibrato. Tone can also refer to the color or mood of the human voice—different from timbre—and also among instruments. Pianos, for example. You may like or dislike a specific piano for its tone. A tone may be expressed in differing ways. On the piano, for example, a delicate tone will contrast with a sharp and jarring tone, made possible through technical aspects of piano performance. Singers may vary tone by altering the quality of their voices: soft and gentle at times, harsh and loud at others. In a comparable way, your life has tones. Think of them as the spirit with which you live life. Life tones can change, sometimes minute to minute, depending on what is happening in your environment. They can be relatively consistent or erratic, encompassing the core emotions. Just as a musician has developed the skills to alter and manipulate musical tones, most people can develop the skills for altering their life tones—or spirit. That, too, comes with choice, practice, technical finesse, and level of emotional intelligence skills.

 A new AUDIO podcast is posted every Saturday morning

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Performing Music

Performing music is a horse of a different color, as my father used to say. It engages almost all areas of the brain simultaneously—especially the portions that process and decode visual, auditory, and motor activity. Brain scans have shown that performing music actively lights up almost the entire brain. Anita Collins, in a 2014 TED talk about music and the brain, compared playing an instrument to a full “brain-body workout.” Both complex and amazing, think of it as a party going on inside the brain—complete with exploding fireworks. In fact, music may be the only known medium that at once activates, stimulates, and engages the entire brain. If you are interested in this genre, you may enjoy the book that Michael R. Hudson and I co-authored: Music on the Brain. 

Listening to Music

What happens in the brain when you are listening to music versus performing music?

When you are listening to music, the short answer is A WHOLE LOT! Although your ears are designed to transmit sound waves, you actually hear with your brain, as it decodes and interprets what the sound waves mean. This process activates multiple areas of your brain at the same time. Here are six things that happen in the brain when you listen to music:

a)    Levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine—the feel better chemical—rise.

b)   Levels of the stress hormone cortisol fall—reducing chronic stress.

c)    Endorphins that help you feel better also help you cope with pain are released

d)   Neuropeptides can improve your mood as you listen to upbeat music.

e)    Listening to sad or melancholy music can help you get in touch with your emotions and help you heal.

f)     When you listen to live music, the bonding chemical, oxytocin is released that helps people learn to trust one another.

More tomorrow.

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