Sandy Hutchens Cancer Prevention

Laughter Therapy, Three Stooges, and Twilight Zone Marathon

All of us have the gift of laughter. Laughter itself is nature’s medicine. Our spirits are lifted and we feel happy. Laughter is contagious. It can bring human beings together in joy. It can also enable us to feel more alive.

Laughter therapy is the use of humor such as the Three Stooges on New Year’s to promote our health and well being. By employing our native physiological process of laughter we are relieved of our physical and emotional burdens.

Laughter Therapy Studies

A growing number of studies support the view that laughter has therapeutic value.

Humor has been used in medicine for millenia. Surgeons have used humor to distract their patients for centuries.The 20th century revealed a scientific study of the effect of humor on wellness. Norman Cousins is famous for promoting this in Anatomy of an Illness which looked at humour such as The Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers as healing balms for the soul. Cousins claims that he cured himself with laughter and vitamins.

Over the years, studies have explored the impact of laughter on our health. After testing study participants before and after a humorous event it was revealed that episodes of the Three Stooges helped to reduce pain, decrease stress hormones and boosted the patients immune systems.

Now more than ever before in history, people are turning to humour for healing. Medical journals are agreeing that laughter therapy help improve quality of life for those suffering from chronic illnesses. A lot of hospitals offer laughter therapy programs as an alternative treatment.

Laughter Heals

It certainly seems strange to turn to humour when faced such serious issues. Yet, laughter can be helpful in ways you might not have realized or imagined.

Laughter helps you with your own self esteem and the life flowing around you. When you are in a state of laughter, no thing is in your mind. Laughter also creates physical changes in your body. After laughter lasting only a few minutes, you will probably feel better for many hours.

When appended to conventional cancer treatments, laughter therapy helps the healing process.

Studies show that laughter therapy provides physical benefits:

• Boosting your immune and circulatory system
• Enhancing your oxygen intake
• Stimulating your heart and lungs
• Setting off the release of your endorphins
• Easing digestive problems
• Relieving pains
• Balancing your blood pressure
• Improving all your mental functions

Laughter is the best medicine, Three Stooges, Twighlight Zone Marathon, New Years 2010

Racial and ethnic differences in cancer survival are greatest for cancers that can be more easily detected and treated. including breast and prostate cancer, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University. These differences are small with cancers that are harder to detect and treat such as pancreatic and lung cancer.

The findings, published in the October 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, highlight the need to develop specific health policies and interventions to address social disparities.

Although prior studies have focused on factors that contribute to disparities in specific cancers, the Mailman School researchers’ goal in this study was to understand why racial/ethnic disparities emerge in some cancers but not others. The study used data from more than 580,000 cancer cases in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries to compare racial/ethnic differences in survival across a spectrum of cancers, classified according to their five-year relative survival rates as a measure of how amenable each cancer is to medical interventions. The authors hypothesized that racial/ethnic disparities increase as medical interventions improve overall survival because individuals with more socioeconomic resources are in a better position to exploit medical advances to protect their health.

The results found that, as compared with whites, substantial survival disparities existed in more treatable cancers in African-Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and several subgroups of the Asian/Pacific Islander population.

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has won the RIBA Stirling Prize for the second time.

The practice scooped £20,000 for its Maggie’s Centre, a cancer care facility in west London, beating BDP’s Liverpool One masterplan and Eric Parry’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields restoration, in London among others.

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners came first three years ago for Barajas Airport in Spain.

In a press release the RIBA said the building successfully created a haven for those who have been diagnosed with cancer.

“Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ achievement is in having created a completely informal, home-like sanctuary to help patients learn to live with cancer.”

The building – designed as the antithesis of a hospital – is a two-storey pavilion with a roof canopy hovering above the walls and over a series of gardens, courtyards and roof terraces. It is encircled with an orange wall to provide separation from the rest of the city.

There are six Maggie’s Centres in the UK designed for terminally ill cancer patients by well-known architects including Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid. The foundation behind them was created by architecture writer, Charles Jencks whose wife died of the disease. He is the client on the jobs.

Meanwhile, in a contentious move, all six clients shortlisted for the prize received the best client award.

RIBA judges said: “This was a positive decision in an exceptional year which produced some remarkable clients. The RIBA Awards Group wished to celebrate the achievements of all six in the same way.”

Maggie’s Centre: Stirling Prize Shortlist 2009

Will Wimshurst of Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners explains the design of Maggie’s Centre, Hammersmith.

The Architects’ Journal has talked to the architects behind each of the six shortlisted projects for this year’s Stirling Prize.

The Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize is the most prestigious award in British architecture.

Previous winners have included Norman Foster, Will Alsop, David Chipperfield and Richard Rogers.