Journal of Nursing Jocularity

Journal of Nursing Jocularity

Posts Tagged 'diabetes humor'

What’s So Funny About Diabetes? Now Available on Amazon!

PhotobucketIt’s the most wonderful time of the year – no, not the time we get to break into Santa’s stash of sugar-free candy canes (although that’s pretty awesome too!) It’s book release season! I’m super excited to tell you that my latest book, What’s So Funny About Diabetes? A Creative Approach to Coping With Your Disease is now available!

What’s so funny about diabetes?

Maybe nothing. Then again, maybe everything.

Especially if you understand the premise that so much of our humor comes from pain and discomfort—our own, or somebody else’s. And let’s face it; if you’re a diabetic, you’ve got more than your fair share of pain and discomfort.

Currently one in 10 US adults has diabetes, but those numbers could go as high as 1 in 3 by the year 2050. A long-term solution can only come from getting people to change their lifestyles: better diets, exercise and coping mechanisms to deal with this serious illness.

The good news: Humor and laughter have been shown scientifically to have positive benefits for diabetic patients. Laughter has been shown to lower blood glucose in diabetics, as well as decrease hormones that can be harmful. Humor is recognized as a healthy coping mechanism. And humor has also been proven to increase the retention of information.

For these reasons, and more, author Karyn Buxman has written the first in a series of books for patients with chronic illness: What’s So Funny About Diabetes? When you’re a diabetic, you need to arm yourself with all the tools that you possibly can to become the healthiest person that you can be. You need a large repertoire of skills. Humor isn’t the be-all, end all; it’s not meant to replace your medical regime, but rather to be a complement to all the efforts you’re already making.

Now Karyn Buxman shows you how you can strategically use humor everyday to better manage your diabetes and live a healthier and happier life. And you don’t need to be funny. You just need to be able to see funny.

“If we took what we now know about laughter and bottled it, it would require FDA approval,” says psychoneuroimmunologist, Dr. Lee Berk. The perfect gift for yourself or someone you love, this book is filled with wise, witty, and life-saving advice. Whether you are a diabetic, a pre-diabetic, or the cheerleader for a diabetic, there is something in this book for you.

Posted in: Publisher's Note

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Humor Lets You Own Your Disease: JNJ Talks to Kelly Kunik

“I didn’t want my friends to be afraid of me,” Kelly Kunik said. “Who wants to be the kid who passes out? So I made jokes. I didn’t want them to be nervous, I wanted to be normal.” That sense of humor that Kunik used growing up as a Type 1 Diabetic (she was diagnosed at age 8) comes shining through her writing, which you can read on her blog Diabetesaliciousness. We recently sat down with Kelly to talk about humor, the role it plays in chronic conditions, and what patients wish their health care providers knew.

JNJ: Humor’s obviously a large part of your life. Why don’t we start out talking about the connection http://www.journalofnursingjocularity.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=3027#titledivbetween having diabetes and the power of laughter?

Kelly: There’s absolutely a very strong connection between humor and diabetes. It lets you own your disease, rather than letting it own you. Once you can laugh at something, you own it. Things become easier, all across the spectrum.

When you find a community of other people who are facing the same situation, and you find you can laugh about what you have in common — cutting your finger and running for your meter because you don’t want to waste the blood! — it makes things more bearable. You don’t feel like you’re alone. You’re not the only person who doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. You’re not the only person who has to go exercise, even when you really don’t want to. (more…)

Posted in: Interviews

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