Thursday, May 10, 2012

Easing pain with laughter

Most people might not find anything funny in colorectal cancer, but Brenda Elsagher, who has had it, sees the humor in it and in life with an ostomy.

The Minnesota comedian travels around the country with an act that is aimed at getting people to become more comfortable with a kind of cancer that is, as she says, "hush-hush."

She believes that laughter really is the best medicine when you are hurting. New research backs this up, showing that laughter raises pain thresholds, probably due to increased production of endorphins, the feel-good hormones.

Check out my Q and A with her in Cancer Today, the publication of the American Association for Cancer Research.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great Piece -- Runder-Funder Woman

reminds me of when i had cancer and the surgeon and oncologist weren't sure: i sang: "she says anal, he says vulvar, anal vulvar just so vulgar! let's call the whole thing off!"

and then when the nurse from hell kept me waiting for two hours for biopsy results while my doctor was away, clovering doctor was Curtyn...so i kept chanting, it's curtains for perkins! thankfully, it wasnn't...