Laughter is
The Best Medicine
Laugh for Energy
A Clever Joke
A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day his supply of the birds ran out. So he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road.
Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with 'transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises'.
 Norman Cousins
Norman Cousins (1915 - 1990 had Ankylosing Spondylitis, acute inflammation of the spine, so severe he was almost completely paralysed and given a one in five hundred chance of recovery and a few months to live.. He checked into a hotel, took mega doses of vitamin C and watched funny movies including Candid Camera and the Marx Brothers. He found that ten minutes of boisterous laughter results in at least two hours of pain-free sleep. He eventually recovered and returned to work fulltime at the 'Saturday Review'. He lived to the age of 75. Norman Cousins became Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities at UCLA because of his quest for proof that a patient’s psychological approach to illness could have an effect on biological states and health. He was particularly interested in the impact of positive emotions and attitudes, such as purpose, determination, love, hope, faith, will to live and festivity. If the brain played an active role in the healing process, might it be consciously directed for that purpose? What would the implications of such findings be on the treatment of serious illness? His work lives on in the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
A Quirky Quote
'With respect to energy ... humans are more adapted to bipedalism than dogs to quadrupedalism.'
(Effect of posture and locomotion on energy expenditure - Americal Journal of Physical Anthropology) Translated, this means that human beings do better walking on two legs, while dogs are designed to use four. But we humans must first move through the stage of crawling 'on all fours' before we learn to stand upright. This has implications with regard to posture. You can read more about posture to energize here.
The Young Doctor and the Old Doctor
A young doctor had moved out to a small community to replace the retiring country doctor. The older doctor suggested the young one accompany him on his rounds so the community could become used to a new doctor. At the first house a woman complained, "I've been a little sick to my stomach. "The older doctor said, "Well, you've probably been overdoing the fresh fruit. Why not cut back on the amount you've been eating and see if that does the trick?" As they left, the younger man said, "You didn't even examine that woman. How did you arrive at your diagnosis so quickly?" "I didn't have to. You noticed I dropped my stethoscope on the floor in there? When I bent over to pick it up, I noticed a half-dozen banana peels in the trash. That was what was probably making her sick.
"Huh," the younger doctor said, "pretty clever. I think I'll try that at the next house."
Arriving at the next house, they spent several minutes talking with a younger woman. She complained that she just didn't have the energy she once did. "I'm feeling terribly run down lately." "You've probably been doing too much work for the church," the younger doctor told her. "Perhaps you should cut back a bit and see if that helps". As they left, the elder doc said, "Your diagnosis is almost certainly correct, but how did you arrive at it?" "Well, just as you did at the last house, I dropped my stethoscope and when I bent down to retrieve it, I noticed the Priest under the bed". Another Doctor Joke A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."
Trivia - Energizing or not
- The speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s
- The law of conservation of energy says that energy is always conserved. Do you believe this?
- Work is the product of force and the distance over which it moves.
- The Glycemic Index is a measure of how rapidly glucose of various forms of carbohydrates are absorbed into the blood circulation. Sugar has a high GI because it is absorbed quickly and gives us a sugar 'high'. More sustained energy is obtained from low GI foods. Therefore low GI foods are natural energy boosters.
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