Former President Reagan employed paid staff to create humorous opening remarks for his speeches. These remarks conveyed the important content of the State of the Union address while also providing humorous anecdotes that connected to it. If humor exists in the political world, it should also exist in local communities. Towns and villages could create mechanisms that infuse laughter and humor into daily life. This would allow people to unconsciously develop a sense of humor and boost their immunity while living in the community. Some American hospitals even have “humor rooms.” These rooms contain humorous books and videos, designed to entertain patients and boost their immunity.
In recent years, various data have demonstrated that humor promotes health. For example, an experiment was conducted from the perspective of psychoneuroimmunology to examine the relationship between laughter and immune function. Fifty students were divided into two groups: one group watched a 60-minute video of popular youth comedy, and the other sat in chairs reading magazines. Before the experiment, blood samples were taken from the students, and again afterward, to examine the activity of natural killer cells (NCRs). The students were divided into two groups, and changes in NCR activity were measured. The results showed that the NCR activity of the control group, who sat in chairs and read magazines, decreased. However, the NCR activity of the students who watched comedies increased significantly. This indicates that after laughing, immunoglobulin levels rose, activating NCR cells. It is becoming scientifically proven that laughter enhances immune function.
The opposite of laughter is the symptoms of depression. Stress, such as anxiety and worry, worsens the symptoms of depression. To escape depression and immerse oneself in an environment of laughter, certain skills seem to be necessary. If you want to live a happy life, you need to practice this from a young age. The brain loves fun. If dopamine secretion is high, happy emotions arise. An efficient way to increase dopamine is to experience many small feelings of accomplishment. A concrete example of this is watching rakugo (traditional Japanese storytelling). Listening to rakugo and exercising are effective ways to relieve stress. If you automatically record rakugo and manzai (comedy duo) from TV and radio programs, you can accumulate about 1000 stories in a year. That’s enough content to make you laugh. Listening to 1000 rakugo and manzai stories while riding a home stationary bike would make for an interesting lifestyle. You’d do aerobic exercise on the bike and listen to rakugo in between. It might be fun to exercise for 30 minutes while listening to rakugo, simultaneously relieving stress and boosting your immunity.
