Christopher Duffy

I think a really big piece of that is being willing to laugh at yourself.

Let's say like, oh, gosh, I put my foot in my mouth so badly.

I'm so sorry.

And to laugh about that as well, to not just laugh outwardly focused, but also inwardly focused.

Laughter is the best medicine is this phrase that people say all the time.

And I think that we kind of all know that that is transparently not true, right?

Like, obviously, penicillin is better medicine than laughter.

Obviously, if I am in pain and you're about to do surgery on me, I wouldn't be like, forget the anesthesia.

Let me just hear a couple of great knock-knock jokes.

Like, that's just transparently wrong.

For the book, I did some research and I talked to emergency room doctors, I talked to a psychologist who ran a lab studying anxiety, and I talked to a nursing professor who worked in a nursing home with elderly patients.

And they all showed me different ways that humor and laughter has played a really important role in their clinical practice.

And the biggest piece is that laughter, it's not necessarily about like solving your medical issue, but it is about reframing your experience, right?

Like you can go from being so focused on like pain and loneliness and unhappiness and then laugh.

And it can release that tension and reframe how you see it.

And that can actually play a really significant role in your medical recovery from a condition, right?

Like changing the way people think about and feel about their condition is a real important medical outcome.

An example that an emergency room doctor gave me is that often before he stitches someone up, he has to give them a local anesthetic.

And the local anesthetic really burns when you first give it.

It hurts before it makes the person numb.