Kane County Chronicle (link to article)

Sept. 11, 2010

The best medicine

ASHLEY RHODEBECK Marianne Tomlinson will be the last person to say she is a comedian. But make no mistake – this Geneva resident knows how to make people laugh.

She is among more than three dozen Illinois residents certified as laugh leaders by the World Laughter Tour, an Ohio-based organization that aims to promote health and peace through laughter.

Tomlinson underwent two days of laugh leadership training three years ago for the simple reason that it seemed enjoyable.

“What fun would it be to go out and bring laughter to people,” she said.

Since then, Tomlinson has led chiropractors, a men’s networking group, staff retreats and a caregiver support group in laughter.

Karen Kleveno, a certified laugh leader also from Geneva, has gotten senior citizens and a fibromyalgia group to laugh, and former St. Charles resident John Voll, now of Houston, Texas, uses his laughter training at work.

How do they get people to giggle?

Not with humor or jokes. Those strategies are too dependent on a person’s perception of what they think is funny, the laugh leaders said.

Instead, they use exercises that create spontaneous laughter. For example, Kleveno and Tomlinson said, they use the sounds “ho” and “ha” to get a session started. They instruct the participants to introduce themselves to each other with the Hawaiian greeting of aloha and to repeat the last syllable, “ha.”

“It’s so silly that people just start laughing,” Tomlinson said.

Maureen Well, who belongs to a fibromyalgia support group in Hinsdale, said she was skeptical that Kleveno could get her to laugh by making some goofy sounds.

She said she remembers thinking, “I don’t think that I can force laughter.”

Not only did Kleveno get Well to laugh, but she also got the rest of the group – both those quick to giggle and those more dour – to join in, Well said.

By the session’s end, Well felt as relaxed as if she had completed a mediation, she said. During the session, she said, the aches and pains she feels all over her body, all the time, went away.

“When you’re laughing like that you totally forget it,” Well said. “It lifted you up emotionally, too.”

Laughing is responsible for several health benefits, including the release of endorphins, which provide pain relief, according to the World Laughter Tour.

Other benefits include muscle relaxation, reducing symptoms of neuralgia and rheumatism, secreting an enzyme protecting the stomach from forming ulcers, reducing blood pressure and reducing chronic respiratory conditions, according to the organization.

Such health benefits attracted Kleveno to the World Laughter Tour, she said. She learned of the organization while working toward a master’s degree at DePaul University. Her work focuses on a consumer model of integrative and holistic health care, and she has since incorporated laughter therapy as a holistic self-care program, she said.

“By the time people are finished, they feel they’ve had a good work out and are in much better spirits,” Kleveno said.

Hosanna! Lutheran Church has twice invited Tomlinson to lead its caregivers support group in laughter to help lift the members’ spirits and to give them something to smile about, said Polly Lamkin, the church’s director of outreach ministries.

“Caregiving for some is a 24/7 job, and people don’t choose that necessarily,” Lamkin said. “In spite of everything, it’s always good to laugh.”

Lamkin said the group’s latest laughter session ended with everyone feeling good, but it was particularly nice to see one of the care receivers participate.

“She’s struggling in some areas,” Lamkin said. “Something that simple for her was achievable. … It just put her in a great spirit, a great mood.”

There are, however, some health risks in laughing too much due to its aerobic nature, laugh leaders say. They caution participants – such as pregnant women, those with heart conditions and those who recently underwent intestinal surgery – from fully participating.

“Laughter is like jogging for your insides,” Tomlinson said. She noted 30 minutes of laughter equals about 15 minutes on a rowing machine.

Voll, who leads a lot of meetings in his position at BP, said he uses the laughter exercises for about 20 minutes in the morning and after lunch to get employees energized and to help reduce their stress.

Although some employees feel uncomfortable laughing at work, Voll said, the exercises have been well received.

“Once you get started [laughing],” he said, “it’s almost hard to stop.”

Kane County Chronicle (Geneva, IL).