Chapter List

• Introduction to Age Erasers for Women
• Stop the Clock
• Age Spots
• Allergies
• Anger
• Arrhythmias
• Arthritis
• Back Pain
• Binge Eating
• Bladder Problems
• Burnout
• Bursitis and Tendinitis
• Cellulite
• Depression
• Dieting
• Double Chin
• Drinking Problems
• Drug Dependency
• Eating Disorders
• Endometriosis
• Fatigue
• Fibroids
• Foot Problems
• Hair Loss
• Heart Attack
• Heart Disease
• Hemochromatosis
• High Blood Pressure
• Hysterectomy
• Infertility
• Midlife Crisis
• The Pill
• Respiratory Diseases
• Sex Problems and Stds
• Smoking
• Snoring and Sleep Apnea
• Stress
• Stroke
• Television
• Thyroid Disorders
• Type A Personality
• Unwanted Hair
• Varicose Veins
• Vision Changes
• Worry
• Wrinkles
• Adventure
• Aerobics
• Affirmations
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Altruism
• Antioxidants
• Aspirin
• Breakfast
• Breast Care
• Calcium
• Career Change
• Change and Adaptability
• Confidence and Self-Esteem
• Cosmetic Dentistry
• Cosmetic Surgery
• Creativity
• Fiber
• Fluids
• Forgiveness
• Friendships
• Goals
• Honesty
• Hormone Replacement Therapy
• Humor
• Immunity
• Learning
• Leisure Time
• Low-Fat Foods
• A Litany of Low-Fat Foods
• Makeup
• Marriage
• Massage
• Medical Checkups
• Optimism
• Relaxation
• Religion and Spirituality
• Resistance Training
• Sex
• Skin Care
• Sleep
• Stretching
• Vegetarianism
• Vitamins and Minerals
• Yoga
• Credits
• Gray Hair Rethinking Your True Colors
• Biological Clock
• Body Image
• Caffeine
• Cancer
• Cholesterol
• Dental Problems
• Diabetes
• Digestive Problems
• Hearing Loss
• Injuries and Accidents
• Memory
• Menopausal Changes
• Metabolism Changes
• Migraines
• Osteoporosis
• Overweight
• Premenstrual Syndrome
• Reaction Time
• Skin Cancer
• Ulcers

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Humor

Humor

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It's No Joke--Humor Is Healthy

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"If you never want to see a man again, say 'I love you. I want to marry you. I want to have children.' They leave skid marks."
--Rita Rudner

Remember that game of Truth or Dare you played at Sally Winkler's fifth-grade slumber party? You know, the one where Janie Pratt had to kiss Sally's dog on the lips--and the dog kissed back? You laughed so hard that the little rubber bands on your braces popped out of your mouth.

At that tender age you had already stumbled upon one of life's most powerful natural age erasers: humor. In these hurry-up, way-too-serious days of adulthood, you can use a smile and a chuckle to help make yourself feel like a kid again. Humor can relax your body, ease your mind, relieve stress and boost your creativity.

"A sense of humor is not a cure-all or end-all for healthy living," says Joel Goodman, Ed.D., director of the Humor Project in Saratoga Springs, New York. "But it's a great way to beat stress and worry, and it can really make you feel better about life. And the best part of all is that you can do it for yourself."

Happy Mind, Happy Body

"The bad times I can handle. It's the good times that drive me crazy. When is the other shoe going to drop?"
--Erma Bombeck

When something strikes you as funny, you laugh. And when you laugh, your body responds, says psychiatrist William F. Fry, M.D., associate clinical professor emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California. You flex, then relax, 15 facial muscles plus dozens of others all over your body. Your pulse and respiration increase briefly, oxygenating your blood. And your brain experiences a decrease in pain perception, possibly associated with the production of pain-killing, pleasure-giving endorphins.

There's evidence that laughter can spur your immune system, increasing activity of lymphocytes and other "killer cells" (antibodies) and possibly raising levels of disease-fighting immunoglobulin A in your bloodstream, according to Kathleen Dillon, Ph.D., a psychologist and professor at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts. One study even showed that the Immunoglobulin A may pass through breast milk to children and that humorous moms and happy babies suffer fewer respiratory infections.

By the time you're done giggling, your body is calmer, your brain is clearer and you may even discover that your headache or stiff neck has disappeared. Research shows you also might be more capable of solving problems that seemed impossible a few grumpy minutes before. Not bad for half a minute's work--if you can call laughing work.

Laughing It Off

"My ancestors wandered lost in the wilderness for 40 years because even in biblical times, men would not stop to ask for directions."
--Elayne Boosler

The long-term effects of humor are harder to measure. The late author Norman Cousins credited laughter with helping him beat a potentially fatal connective tissue disease. After his diagnosis, Cousins moved into a hotel room, watched funny videos and movies, read funny books and magazines--and staged a stunning recovery.

Despite Cousins's success story, experts say that humor by itself won't cure disease or make you live longer. Still, many doctors have started working humor into treatments for everyone from cancer patients to people undergoing psychotherapy. "When used judiciously, I think it can indeed help with recovery," Dr. Fry says. "If nothing else, it makes the patient feel better for short periods of time."

Even if you're perfectly healthy, a well-honed sense of humor can raise your self-esteem--and maybe even make you more popular. "Humor can help you deal with unpleasant or difficult circumstances," Dr. Goodman says. "If you're able to laugh at yourself or a difficult situation, you're probably going to cope better and feel better in the long run."

Oh, and one other thing: Don't worry about developing laugh lines on your face. You're going to get some wrinkles no matter what you do, be it frowning or squinting or laughing. And specialists like Karen Burke, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist in private practice in New York City, say "positive" wrinkles like laugh lines give your face some character--just as frown-faced women can develop creases that make them look perpetually glum.

Honing Your Funny Bone

"Women should try to increase their size rather than decrease it, because I believe the bigger we are, the more space we'll take up, and the more we'll have to be reckoned with. I think every woman should be fat like me."
--Roseanne Arnold

Dear old Mrs. Crabclaws. You remember her--the fourth-grade teacher whose idea of funny was spending a half-hour after school clapping erasers. Well, Dr. Goodman says that even she could have developed a working sense of humor.

"Everyone can laugh, though you might find that hard to believe," Dr. Goodman says. "The trick is to work on your sense of humor, to hone it, so that you can use it to your advantage."

So how do you make your life a little funnier? Experts offer these tips.

Focus on funny stuff. Try looking for humor in everyday life. It might help, Dr. Goodman says, to pretend you're Allen Funt of Candid Camera for a few minutes each day. "Act like you're carrying around a video camera," he says. "Look for people who are doing funny things, or animals or children or anything that might make you laugh. The more you look for humor, the more you'll find it."

Take a child's-eye view. Buried under a pile of paperwork? If it looks high to you, think how towering--and wicked cool--a seven-year-old would find it. Dr. Goodman says you should try picturing what most stressful adult situations would look like to a kid. The barking boss? The whining salesman? Your nagging Aunt Myrtle? They all look a little less threatening when seen with a childlike perspective.

Check your humor pulse. When it comes to laughter, it takes different jokes for different folks. Dr. Fry suggests spending a week or so to gauge your own sense of humor. Which comic strips make you laugh? Which movies? Which friends or co-workers? Do you find yourself chuckling at your child's antics? Once you've figured it out, start a laugh library. Clip funny comics and stick them on your refrigerator door. Rent or buy funny movies or stand-up comic routines. Shoot home videos of your wacko dog or your bumbling neighbor Bob.

"It's a simple thing to do," Dr. Fry says. "Still, many women don't think to add a little laughter into their lives, and that's too bad, because it really can make you feel better."

Meet your laugh quota. Dr. Goodman suggests trying to get 15 laughs a day, even if you have to look for the humor. "There's no magic in the number," he says. "It just seems about right to me. If you manage to reach your humor quota, you're probably feeling pretty good about life."

Even if you don't particularly feel like laughing, try it once in a while anyway. The reflexes, the smile and the physiological changes your body will undergo just might make you feel better. You may even find yourself beginning to inject humor into tense situations--a great tool everywhere from the boardroom to the bedroom.

Choose wisely. Laughter can be contagious, but so can the plague. If you start making racist or ethnic jokes, people will start avoiding you. "Pick subjects that will bring people together in good humor," Dr. Fry says. "And never single someone out. That will make that person withdraw--and could give her incentive to get back at you when you're most vulnerable," he says.

Draw the line. Not everything is funny. And humor won't solve every dilemma. "There are times when you have to take things seriously," Dr. Goodman says. "Laughing at everything can be a form of avoidance. It helps to have a good attitude, sure, but there are certain times that we need to be sensible--like at funerals or in court or at important business meetings--and we need to consider if it will work for or against us."

The Laugh Library Some days it's hard to work up a smile without a little outside help. That's when you need to check out a chuckle from your personal library of laughter. "Everyone should have a collection," says Patch Adams, M.D., director of the Gesundheit Institute in Arlington, Virginia. "There are times when you can just grab a funny book or movie and change your whole day." Dr. Adams dispensed with frumpy bedside manners years ago and now visits his patients while dressed like a gorilla, a dead French king or even Santa Claus. The nonprofit Gesundheit Institute has been around since 1971, and in that time Dr. Adams and others have treated more than 15,000 patients with humor therapy­styled medicine, helping them laugh themselves back to health. Dr. Adams has found that a humorous context helps prevent burnout and seems to affect the healing process in a positive way. Dr. Adams is so sold on the idea of humor and healing that he's pushing for construction of a "silly hospital" with hidden passages, slides and chutes and other decidedly un-medical features. Dr. Adams has more than 12,000 items in his personal collection, including 1,500 cartoon books, scores of funny videos and dozens more comedy albums. Among his favorites: * Being There, a movie starring the late Peter Sellers. "I honestly can't stop laughing from the opening credits to the end," Dr. Adams says. * The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, a play and best-selling book by Jane Wagner and a movie starring Lily Tomlin. * Comic strips like "Calvin and Hobbes," "The Far Side," "Pogo" and "The Neighbors." * Funny books from modern authors like Dave Barry and Lewis Grizzard. * Any classic video from slapstick artists like the Three Stooges and Jerry Lewis, plus all works by the Marx Brothers (try Duck Soup) and Monty Python (try Monty Python's Life of Brian or Monty Python and the Holy Grail). * Comedy records from Woody Allen ("a great stand-up guy before he went into movies"), Jonathan Winters ("a true genius"), Lenny Bruce, Sid Caesar and many others. Starting a comedy collection, especially albums, can even save you some money--if you shop like the experts. Try checking out garage sales, where you're almost certain to encounter at least one 25-cent comedy album in every stack of records. "And they've only been played three or four times, probably, so there's a lot of life left in them," Dr. Adams says.