Cancer may affect people at all ages, even fetuses, but risk for the more common varieties tends to increase with age. Cancer causes about 13% of all deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007. Cancers can affect other animals besides humans, and plants, too.
Patients, doctors and health-care professionals are all finding that laughter may indeed be the best medicine.
Laughing is found to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones, increase muscle flexion, and boost immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being.
Laughter is infectious.
Hospitals around the country are bringing formal and informal laughter therapy programs into their therapeutic regimens.
Laughter is a universal language and we are born with a non-stop capacity for it.
- It is a contagious emotion and a natural diversion
- It brings people together and breaks down barriers
- Best of all it is free and has no known side reactions
Laughter and Cancer
There are more than 200 types of cancer - each with different causes, symptoms and treatments