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Laughter is best medicine, retired professors say

'A Mirthful Spirit' tells why

Mary Huntley and Edna Thayer, retired nursing professors, believe laughter makes people well, and they've conducted research and written a book to prove it.

2006-12-15
By Jean Lundquist , The Free Press [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 12/15/2006]

Photo by Matt Gorrie
Mary Huntley and Edna Thayer in radio studio
Mary Huntley (left) and Edna Thayer are touring the area and doing interviews in support of their book, which is about the importance of laughter. The two retired nurse educators emphasize that laughter helps retain or attain wellness. They did an interview Thursday at KMSU radio.

MANKATO — Make no mistake about it — these women are serious about laughter. So serious, in fact, they have conducted research, replicated it and written a book about it.

Local authors Mary Huntley and Edna Thayer have written "A Mirthful Spirit — Embracing Laughter for Wellness." But don't look for the book in the humor section at the bookstore.

"It's not a joke book," Thayer explains, though "A Mirthful Spirit" has what she calls "a light and festive manner. Says Huntley: "People will laugh when they read it."

Huntley and Thayer are retired professors from the nursing department at Minnesota State University. As nurses and as educators, they say the book they decided to write is for the lay person, not for the professional. If people have been in the health field for a while, Huntley says, "they probably know this by now." They hope the book might serve as a tool for the professional to give to patients in need of humor to regain or retain wellness.

"Wellness is not an absence of disease," Thayer says. Rather, she defines wellness as "an attitude of acceptance, and purposeful, meaningful living."

Huntley got serious about humor when she read a paper her then teenage daughter, Kendy, had written on the subject while in high school. She says, "a light bulb went off." Her research began, and she used the topic for her dissertation.

The research that led to "A Mirthful Spirit" involved interviewing people about their use of, and reaction to, laughter. The authors found that most people they talked to considered their quality time to be filled with laughter and mirth, which they define as "joy."

For many people who are battling mental illness, Huntley says, it is considered a sign of recovery when they are able to laugh. Whether laughter results from, or results in wellness may not actually be important. The important thing, both agree, is that people laugh.

Laughter has become a commodity that some health professionals actually write prescriptions for, they say. Thayer knows of one practicing health professional who has written prescriptions instructing the patient to laugh for 20 seconds, two times each day.

While laughter is tied to a positive attitude in approaching wellness or illness, it is also different in some ways. "Laughing exercises the internal organs, Huntley says. It also is important in changing body chemistry, releasing endorphins and other chemicals that change the way a person feels physically.

Joy needs to be intentional, Huntley says. "We're intentional about what we eat and how we exercise. We make choices about when we sleep and about our spirituality. We're not as intentional about the one thing we have that can make us well, and won't cost a penny," she says. That thing is laughter.

The benefits of laughter for both mental and physical health are being recognized around the world. Huntley and Thayer tell of a woman in a small town in Wisconsin who convinced a few friends to meet her on a street corner one day a week, and laugh. The idea, they say, has caught on, and more people have joined them on the street corner just to laugh for a few minutes. "It's infectious," Thayer says.

Laughing clubs are springing up around the globe. A search of the Internet finds laughing clubs spread across all continents.

Thayer has been extolling the virtues of laughter since 1990. "I'm known as 'The Laughing Lady,'" she says. Thayer has giver 700 presentations ranging from 20-minute speeches to daylong conferences on the health benefits of laughing. At some point in each presentation she has given, "I invite the people to laugh with me," she says.

"Laughing is the most important thing I do every day," Huntley says. She points to Thayer and says, "Edna is the comedian. I can't remember a joke, but I love to laugh. So I cuddle up to laughter wherever I find it."

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