Laughter, the best medicine?

I came across this story the other day and I thought it was pretty interesting:

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2011/02/01/2011-02-01_medical_clowns_may_boost_ivf_treatment_success_laughing_may_lower_stress_raise_i.html

Basically, a group of Israeli women undergoing IVF treatments were given 15-minute visits from a trained "medical clown" immediately after the embryos were implanted. The goal of the study was to see if laughter reduced stress in the women and if that lead to better results. Well, the percentage of success was 36% compared to group that didn't receive any treatment whose success rate was 20%.

I really think that was a cool study to do, seeing as that kind of treatment would be really stressful and if I went through it, I would try anything to help, even if it sounded kinda silly at first. I know that laughter really helps me to relax, and I'm glad to have a husband that will do anything to make me laugh (though he does annoy me on purpose to make himself laugh sometimes).

I was also wondering what exactly Israeli humor is like. Apparently, the University of Haifa in Israel is the only medical school to offer a degree in medical clowning. Huh. So they must take humor pretty seriously, at least in the way they believe that it really helps with medical procedures. I just hope that it's better that Latin humor, the stuff they put on TV anyway. Never got the whole dress-up-an-old-man-as-a-red-headed-boy-with-freckles thing. But there are some things about American humor I'm sure other people don't get either. Like the reliance on fart jokes. Classic as it may be, it is a little crass. But I'll still laugh.