“Always keep several get well cards on the mantle. So if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you’ve been sick and unable to clean.”
Maxine © 1986 Shoebox Greetings
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Tag: humor
How humour can help – or hurt – your heart disease recovery
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
“My hubby is stuck with me for another 15 years as long as I keep following doctor’s orders.”
“I told my family that I now had a pig valve in my heart – but I was disappointed when the doctor told me I couldn’t keep the bacon.”
“I am determined to outlive my husband – because I want to clean out his garage!”
Heart patients often use humour like this to distract themselves from the high levels of stress and fear often associated with a life-altering diagnosis like heart disease – such as upcoming surgery, diagnostic tests, or even the ongoing awareness of significantly increased risk of future cardiac events. So reports Nicholas Lockwood, whose research focused on how heart patients use humour to help them cope with such a frightening condition – but ended up showing some surprising results. Continue reading “How humour can help – or hurt – your heart disease recovery”
When eating chocolate is the only right thing to do!
Does anybody remember this classic I Love Lucy episode in which Lucy and Ethel land jobs on the chocolate factory assembly line? Sometimes ya gotta do what ya just gotta do. Thanks to Dr. Laura Imola of Niagara Falls for reminding me recently that laughing out loud is very good for our hearts.
See also:
Auricular amputations of confectionery rabbits
My favourite recipe for heart-healthy chocolate fudge brownies
Is chocolate good for women’s heart health?
Chocolate-covered bacon – and other ways to alter your brain cells
Resilience: it’s hard to feel like a victim when you’re laughing
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Somebody recently described my presentations on women’s heart disease as “part stand-up comedy and part serious cardiology talk!” I think she was right. I now believe, in fact, that some parts of my own heart attack story are downright hilarious. In hindsight, of course.
They weren’t one bit amusing when they were actually happening.
Authors Drs. Steven J. Wolin and Sybil Wolin would likely say that this ability to see humour in a catastrophic health crisis can be a key ingredient in healing resiliency. In their book The Resilient Self, they describe creativity and humour respectively in this way: “they turn nothing into something and something into nothing.” Continue reading “Resilience: it’s hard to feel like a victim when you’re laughing”
Heart Sisters 