The Most Frugal Medicine of All: Your Funny Bone

Now, it would seem the apple may have some competition in keeping the doctor away.

A Japanese geneticist, Kazuo Murakami, has teamed up with the Yoshimoto Kogyo Entertainment Company to test the effects of laughter on certain chronic diseases. The testing involved research participants and stand-up comedians in a comedy club setting.

The first experiment included subjecting diabetics to a monotonous lecture followed by a blood glucose test. The following day, they were treated to a stand-up comedy show followed by another blood glucose test. Test results showed the diabetics had lower glucose levels after attending the stand-up comedy show.

After attending such a show, housewife Kiyomi Yamanaka has noticed smoother blood flow and regained the ability to get down on her knees.

This is not an isolated phenomenon: a group of people in India regularly meet in the city park for a weekly session of The Laughter Club, where they howl, clap, guffaw, squeal, and giggle, sometimes evoking tears, for about an hour. They laugh at themselves, each other, the sky, whatever makes the noise flow.

The Japanese geneticist has put some science into the subject, though—he has identified 23 genes that become activated during the laughing process, and they are associated with immunity, signal transduction, cell cycle, as well as other functions as of yet unnamed.

His intent in to complete the process of naming all the processes sparked by the gene activation, scientifically conclude a link between laughter and medicine, and one day have pharmacists prescribe comedy videos instead of chemical compounds to cure ills.

One good thing about laughter: no harmful side effects.

So look for a day in the future when your doctor will tell you to take two hours of Comedy Central or an HBO Stand-Up show and call him in the morning. Perhaps even Medicare will subsidize a Humor Channel.