A laugh a day keeps the doctor away You’re feeling stressed out. So what do you do? Go to the doctor? Speak to a friend? Have a warm bath and do some yoga? At Professor Hart’s clinic in London you can find another way of dealing with the symptoms of stress. His treatment is called “Laughter Therapy” and it’s becoming more and more popular. Professor Hart holds his laughter sessions three times a week. “Most of my patients are in their 30s and 40s,” he says. “But I do have some younger patients too—college students who are worried about their studies or nervous about exams.” So, what happens in a laughter session? Professor Hart explains, “Well, I take a group of ten patients together and I tell them to laugh. At first they find it very difficult. It’s not easy to laugh just because someone tells you to! But then, after a while, they start laughing, and when they start then they can’t stop. They laugh, all together, for an hour. Their heart rates rise, their faces go pink and they look so much better when they leave. And they all come back for more! They tell me that the laughter sessions stop them feeling stressed.” It seems that laughter really is the best medicine!