I study and enjoy comedy almost every day of my life. The word study is just another word for being awake. The word comedy is another word for part of the experience of being awake. The evocation of being humored is certainly not part of our science of human biochemistry. We study the evocation of fear, through the adrenal chemistry, but fear is easier to set in play in a laboratory than is humor. Norman Cousins (Founder of the Progressive magazine) chose to treat his "incurable" disease by shutting himself in with reels and reels of old comedy cinema. His disease responded to the therapy of comedy.
Hans Selye, the father of physiology, coined the term "stressors" as he tracked the neuro-chemical and nutritional changes, and their association with human symptoms of disease and dis-ease. He measured the depletion of nutrients such as vitamin C, E, D zinc and other electrolytes. If these nutrients are used in protection from stress and stressors, then logic would say that they are sensible tools of therapy, except the FDA passed regulations in the mid '30's that prohibits the recognition of natural substances such as herbs, fungi and nutrients as therapeutic or medicinal. A sad intentional scientific blindness and bias that qualifies American Medicine as non-science, rife with a variety of "special" interests that seek to control the "market".
While the long lobbied corruption of our oversight agencies and institution's is pretty much beyond repair we can take this knowledge and do our part locally. Kind words, soft touch, smiles and humor are gifts that we can seek to be part of our life's journey. And, in the giving comes the fun, and life is lived well.
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