Passage Four
Laughter brings a range of health benefits into your daily life. Laughing boosts your immune system. Just look at the work of Dr. Lee Berk, of Loma Linda University in California. Berk doesn't tell jokes beside patients’ beds, but he does research humor. He has shown that laughing can lead to an increase in antibodies and other cells that fight viruses.
Other studies show that laughter might be helpful for people in hospitals. An organization called Rx Laughter carried out a study about humor in the hospital. The results suggest that laughter might help children deal with painful medical treatments.
The study involved children between the ages of 8 and 14. The kids placed their hands in cold water for as long as they could while watching funny old TV shows, such as I Love Lucy. Guess what happened? The kids were able to withstand pain for a longer period of time when they were watching a funny video than when watching no video. Those who laughed more felt less pain.
"This means that humor can keep you away from thinking about a painful process and thus make it seem less painful," says Dr. Margaret Stuber, the main researcher for the study. She works at the University of California at Los Angeles. As Stuber also points out, humor may even be good for your emotional health because physical and emotional health are connected. "If you can say to yourself that a medical treatment wasn't as bad as you thought it would be, then you're less likely to have nightmares, fears about going to the doctor, and other related anxieties," she says.

According to the last paragraph, what are the effects of laughter on emotional health?