L aughter really is the best medicine. Study after study has shown that laughter...

Helps block pain. It seems to do so by flooding the body with endorphins, the body’s own opiate-like painkillers.

Relaxes muscles. Chronic muscle tension contributes to headaches, low back pain and other forms of chronic pain.

Fights infection. Laughter activates key immune system components, including antibodies, natural killer cells and T cells.

Reduces emotional stress. A good sense of humor gives you the resilience you need to cope with the tough days.

No matter how big a role humor plays in your life now, there’s always room for more. My program will help you pack more laughter into your life...

Find out what you think is funny. When distinguished editor Norman Cousins came down with the debilitating arthritis-like disorder ankylosing spondylitis, his doctors could offer him little relief from the terrible pain.

Cousins checked himself out of the hospital. He went home and spent hours and hours watching Candid Camera and Marx Brothers films... and got significant relief.*

If you’d like to use humor for better health, do not assume that the humorous materials that worked for Cousins will work for you. You must find things that trigger your own unique sense of humor.

Helpful strategy: Spend the next week considering these questions...

When you were growing up, which TV programs did you find especially funny?

What are your favorite motion picture comedies?

Which comedians/comic actors do you find particularly funny? Do any comedians turn you off -- perhaps because you find their jokes humorless or offensive?

Are there any newspaper comics that you really enjoy?

Visit your local library. Check out audiotapes of your favorite comedians and videotapes of your favorite films. Look for funny books and cartoon collections, too.

Back home, immerse yourself in the materials you’ve collected. Read the books. Look at the cartoons. Watch the movies. Listen to the audiotapes.

Especially good times to listen: While driving and just before bedtime. There’s nothing like laughter to destress a traffic jam... or prepare you for a peaceful night’s sleep.

Pay attention to the things that do and do not make you laugh. You’ll discover the nature of your unique sense of humor.

Become playful. We adults often get so caught up in day-to-day responsibilities that we lose sight of the playful outlook we had as children.

Antidote: Spend time with kids. If no child or grandchild of your own is handy, ask to “borrow” a friend’s.

Take the child to the park or the zoo. You’ll have a perfect excuse to jump rope... play on the swings... or make silly faces at the monkeys.

Behaving like a child should put a smile on your face. Of course, you’ll also be giving the child a happy experience -- and perhaps providing his/her parents with a welcome respite from child-care responsibilities.

Another way to cultivate a playful attitude is to tape cartoons, silly photos, funny sayings, etc., around your work area.

Indulge in funny props and sight gags, too.

Example: I keep a rubber elephant trunk in my car. I put it on each time I get stuck in traffic. I enjoy watching the other drivers react. Wearing the trunk doesn’t shorten my commute, but the other drivers and I share a good laugh as we wait.

Cultivate the laughter habit. When was the last time you enjoyed a real belly laugh? If you’re like most people, you cannot remember. We seem to have gotten out of the laughter habit. Fortunately, this is one habit that’s easy to regain.

Helpful exercise: Go to a funny movie. When other movie-goers start laughing, join in. Laugh louder and longer than you ordinarily would. Do the same when you watch a funny show on TV.

Eventually, laughing heartily and often will come naturally.

Find humor in language. Look for puns, grammar goofs and double entendres in signs, headlines, menus, etc.

Example I: A restaurant I once ate in had a sign that read, “Use stairs for restroom.”

Example II: I once saw a sign in a department store that read, “Bras are half off.”

Ask a friend to join you in looking for verbal slipups, and make it a contest. First prize goes to whoever spots the joke or silly mistake first.

Develop your sense of irony. Always remember the old saying, “If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry.”

When something unpleasant happens to you, look for irony or absurdity. Doing so will reduce your stress level... and help promote a sense of detachment that helps prevent excessive worry.

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Jimmy Durante once said, “When we admit our schnozzles instead of defending them... we begin to laugh, and the world laughs with us.”

Taking yourself lightly is not the same as putting yourself down. What you’re doing is accepting your limitations and your frailties.

Helpful: List everything about yourself that you do not like. Then divide the entries into two categories -- things you can change, and things you cannot.

Now tell someone one of the items you cannot change. If you hate your ears because they stick out, for example, admitting that to someone else helps you take your ears less seriously.

Ultimately, you may be able to enjoy jokes about your ears. It worked for Ross Perot, didn’t it?

Lighten up during times of stress. Did your computer crash just before you backed up your files? Did the boss yell at you for no reason?

Quick! Imagine your favorite comedian turning your misfortune into side-splitting wisecracks. Call a friend and relate what happened to you in the funniest, most exaggerated way you possibly can.