We are fortunate to have the intellect to understand humour and have it as part of our daily lives. Using humour to ease pain and help healing is no laughing matter to a growing number of doctors and nurses. We all know that it feels great to engage in a good laugh, but a small part of research suggests that adding a bit of laughter to our daily lives may be medicinal. Studies have shown that humour can relieve allergy symptoms, decrease pain and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
             According to an article in the Readers digest"... humour can keep you healthy..."
             In one study, researchers followed two groups of heart attack patients for one year in their rehabilitation programs. While both groups continued their daily medications, the group that got to watch a half-hour comedy show daily, showed lower blood pressure signs and most importantly fewer heart attacks over the next number of years.
             A further study by the Japanese suggests that comedy has the same effects of healing allergies to dust mites and other common irritants as the drug Claritin (an antihistamine drug).
             Norman Cousins, a long-time editor of a popular English newspaper, battled a painful and serious kind of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitid. He was told he was going to have to fight hard to overcome this disease, so he decided to ditch his drugs prescribed to him and take a large number of Vitamin C's and even larger doses of humour. He had a Television moved into his hospital room, where he'd watch Candid Camera episodes and other comedy films. A nurse read him humour books. Cousins said, "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an unaesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep". He became more mobile and he did what doctors did not expect: he got better.
             Special attention must be paid to the type of humour used in healing the emotions and the bod
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