Laughing matters

Last Pentecost we had our annual party in the city. A professional photographer (a friend of a friend) was in attendance (see new pic of me in the sidebar) and he captured many of us enjoying each other's spirit-filled company, often with gales of laughter. His name is Mark Stephen Kornbluth and you can view a substantial portfolio of his work here. I especially love his black and white photography, but that may be because I was once a photographer myself, as were both of my ex-husbands. (Please file that under equal-opportunity blogging... nobody gets left behind.)



Seriously, or maybe not so seriously, laughter is good medicine. The Maryland School of Medicine researchers recently showed that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels. (Translate: good for your heart.) Groucho Marx said: A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast. This pain management effect has also been proven by case studies, as have the physiological effects of laughter in the immune system.



Laughter causes an increase in the number and activity of T cells and natural killer cells, the cells that fight foreign cells and cancer cells; increase in gamma interferon, a blood chemical that stimulates the immune system; a rise in immunoglobulin A, an antibody that fights upper respiratory tract infections, and more immunoglobulins G and M, which help fight other infections.



Immunoglobulins or hobgoblins, I don't really care which... I just need to keep laughing. At everything. Especially at those things some people think should be exempt from laughter: tradegy, religion, bodily functions... to name a few.