Dr. Norm Wakefield: "The Joyful Dad"

The Laughter Factor

There’s a reason why the child who can barely drag himself out of bed in time for school during the week is up at the crack of dawn to watch cartoons on Saturdays. Cartoons make him laugh.

William F. Fry of Stanford University has studied the medical effects of humor since 1953. He has proven that King Solomon was right: A cheerful heart is good medicine. “There is hardly a system in the body a hearty laugh doesn’t stimulate, “Dr Fry reports. Something as simple as laughing makes us feel better all over, partly because laughter stimulates the production of hormones that release endorphins in the brain. Those endorphins give us a sense of pleasure and contentment.

Stanley Tan and Lee Berk of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine find that people who laugh are less likely to suffer from colds and flu because laughter stimulates the immune system. This link between joviality and health is so well established that many doctors use “humor therapy” as part of a comprehensive cancer treatment program. Humor is good activity for the healthy as well. Consider:

• Laughing is a tension-buster. A good chuckle reduces stress and aids relaxation.

• One hundred laughs gives the same amount of aerobic exercise as ten minutes on a rowing machine.

• Laughing involuntarily exercises your abdomen as well as fifteen facial muscles.

Dr. Fry’s research has revealed that:

• A healthy guffaw stimulates lungs, circulation, and muscle tone.

• Protracted chuckling “massages right down to the toes and fingertips.”

• Laughter works out the shoulders, back, and diaphragm.

According to tests done by Swedish psychologist, Lars Ljungdahl, laughter is good for mental health as well:

• Laughter is effective at combating depression.

• Laughter creates a heightened sense of mental well-being.

• Laughter helps the mind to think creatively.

Unfortunately, we men have forgotten how to laugh. If you’re an average American man, researchers say you laugh fifteen times a day. Your children, however, will laugh, chuckle, giggle, snicker, and guffaw more around 400 times before they nod off to sleep tonight! Your wife is 127 times more likely to laugh than you are.

Laughter is contagious. When you laugh with your family, you spread “joy germs” to your kids and plant seeds of laughter. And they gain one more happy memory of time spent with you. Once you become a laughing father, you’re well on your way to leaving a legacy of joy for your kids.

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Dr. Norm Wakefield is a popular author, speaker, seminary professor, and joyful dad to five happy, adult children. A few of his sought-after books are Legacy of Joy (written with his son-in-law), Men are from Israel, Women are from Moab(written with his daughter), and The Dad Difference (written with Josh McDowell).

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

--Proverbs 17:22