Physical Therapy Doctor - April 2020

L A UGH W I T H ME !

OPTIONS: A LIGHTHEARTED APPROACH TO DECREASING STRESS

We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, and it turns out that human physiology supports this claim. When we laugh, our body releases a flood of feel-good chemicals and neurotransmitters. Our blood flow increases, and our production of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, decreases. Oh, and laughing also burns calories! The feel-good, endorphin-inducing benefits of laughter are exactly what prompted Dr. Madan Kataria to develop laughter yoga in 1995. Laughter yoga incorporates breathing, stretching, clapping, and of course, laughing.

The laughter meetup had everyone in high spirits — until the group ran out of jokes. Unsure of what to do next, Kataria found another medical book suggesting the group didn’t need jokes to laugh. Fake laughter is just as beneficial as the real thing because the body can’t tell the difference between the two. Collaborating with this wife, Madhuri, Kataria combined common yoga warmups and breathing techniques with facilitated laughter to create the form of laughter yoga that is practiced worldwide today. If you’re interested in trying laughter yoga for yourself, then you’re in luck. Laughter yoga clubs exist across the United States and the world. Videos on YouTube can teach the basics, but laughter yoga tends to be most beneficial in a group setting. Just think about the last time you found yourself in a fit of giggles with a group of friends or during a comedy show. Didn’t it feel great? Rather than wait for a silly situation to trigger laughter, use laughter yoga to promote laughter and alleviate stress on any day at any time.

Kataria developed the initial idea after coming across research into the benefits of laughter on overall health and well-being. He began to put the research into practice by telling jokes to his patients, and after seeing the positive effects, he took his material to a local park. Parkgoers, who were initially skeptical, joined in on the practice, and the first laughter yoga club was born.

ME E T ME LWI N F E RNANDE Z !

For over three years, Melwin “Mel” Fernandez has called our clinic home. Beloved by patients and staff members alike, he embodies what it means to be part of this team. So, we sat down with Mel to learn what led him to build a career helping people heal. “My mother was a nurse,” he reflects, adding, “Many members of my family are in the medical field, so I always knew I wanted to help people.” Having such inspiring loved ones certainly gave Mel a passion for healing others, but it was his own life experience that led him to physical therapy. “When I was young, I spent

helping people overcome such challenging injuries is part of why he loves what he does. “It makes it more rewarding,” he tells us.

If Mel has one fault, it may be that he’s too caring. We’ve asked him what he’s learned in his past six years of being a physical therapist, and his answer was very telling. “I can get so caught up helping others … I’ve had to remember to take care of myself, too!” And so, Mel’s been keeping his own body and health in motion, playing plenty of volleyball while he’s not at the office. Originally from the Middle East, and having visited Kenya, Vietnam, and Cambodia, he dreams of being able to travel again when he can find the time. “I recently talked to a patient who vacationed in Antarctica,” he tells us, “That’s the fun part of this job, you get to talk to people and learn their stories!”

Thanks for sharing your own story, Mel!

a lot of time at the gym,” he tells us, noting that he was excited to find a field that let him combine his love of health care with his passion for fitness.

Becoming a therapist would broaden Mel’s horizons in ways he didn’t expect. “While going to PT school, I started to work with individuals who’d been in car wrecks,” he remembers. “I realized how much good a physical therapist can do beyond the world of sports.” Mel goes on to explain that

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