Maureen Holloway isn't the only one who turned to humour in times of crisis. A leading oncologist, who has endured his own medical scare, says that for most people, humour reduces the scale of a threat like cancer from huge and cataclysmic to manageable or even mundane.
"Humour is a brilliant coping strategy," says Dr. Robert Buckman of the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital, reciting the name of one of the lectures he regularly gives: "Laughter, the Second-Best Medicine."
Buckman, who was named Canadian Humourist of the Year in 1994, at one time faced a diagnosis of dermatomyositis, a serious condition that causes chronic muscle inflammation and weakness and left him incapacitated for long stretches. He recalls laughing heartily at the Italian comedy Bread and Chocolate and being pain-free for several minutes afterward.
Those were the early days of medicine's understanding of endorphins – released into the spinal fluid when we laugh – which he says can allay pain and fatigue and decrease anxiety and stress.
Still, he cautions that there is no scientific evidence that laughter actually cures any disease or even changes its course. He thinks Norman Cousins' widely read humour therapy have done a disservice to patients everywhere, misleading them into believing "Laugh hard enough and your illness will go away."
"There's a huge difference between feeling better and getting better," says Buckman, who is the author of 14 books and a contributor to television and other media. "But it certainly makes every difference to the quality of life and the way you cope and what you can actually do with the symptoms you have."
Read more:
• Living better through laughter
• 15 ways to live longer
• 9 ways to stop being negative
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