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Laughter and Pain Linda here - I've found an article I thought night help all of us who have pain. It was in the NACPAC Track Volume 3 Issue 3 Fall 96 put out by the North American Chronic Pain Association of Canada and I'm taking the liberty of reprinting here for you with additions by me. Humour for Pain Management Laugh when you hurt???? Hurting is rarely funny, but people who hurt sometimes find that humour is often the most effective way to deal with pain. Why not try some of the following: watch TV programs that are really funny; listen to recordings by comedians that you find hysterically funny; read books, magazine etc., that make you laugh. Something funny can certainly be distracting, but its value seems to go beyond a momentary redirection of thoughts. Humour may produce relaxation, too. For example, when you laugh, it is almost impossible to maintain muscle contraction. A simple example of this is when two or more people attempt to lift a heavy object in unison. One of them may be in charge of coordinating the efforts. That person counts or gives some cue to signal everyone to lift at the same time. But if they laugh, they fail. The result is familiar: the lifters become limp, drop the object, and sometimes actually fall on the floor. Laughter causes skeletal muscle relaxation; the skeletal muscles become too limp to hold or lift an object. So...find something that makes you laugh and practice frequently and daily. (Adapted and reprinted from McCaffery, M & Beebe. 19989)
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