As I spoke gibberish to absolute strangers, mimicked a jack in the box, and threw imaginary milk on others, I couldn’t help but think how ridiculous the members of the St. Louis Laughter and I would look to an outside observer. Led by Marlene Chertok, we all participated in one goofy activity after another, separated by intervals of the chant “Ho, ho, ha, ha, ha” and wrapped up the hour-long session with relaxing deep breathing.

“It’s based on the contagious effect of laughter and the idea that motions affect emotions,” Chertok said. “So the more you act happy the more your body begins to act positive with positive actions and eventually your mind kicks in. You start laughing with your body and then your mind soon follows.”

Laughter yoga is a movement promoting laughter as means of obtaining better medical and psychological health. Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of laughter yoga, created the first laughing group in India in 1995.

Recipient of Dr. Kataria’s Laughter Yoga Ambassador award in 2008, Chertok is a cancer survivor and the founder of the first laughter club in the St. Louis area. She first learned about the laughter yoga movement through the documentary, “The Laughter Club of India”.

“I was recovering from breast cancer and was looking into other things I could do to improve my health for my own healing,” Chertok said. “I became utterly fascinated by it and I tried laughing myself watching the movie and I could only laugh in a polite stuffed-in way. So I decided that as part of my own healing I was going to work on my laughter to be able to do a big belly laugh again.”

Intrigued by the research connecting laughter to improvements in the immune system and stress cortisol levels, Chertok decided to try laughter yoga in hopes of bettering her stress management and immune system while reducing the severity of her asthma.

“I kind of decided that if I was going to die, I was going to die laughing,” Chertok said.

“I became obsessed with it, and we went to visit a laughter club in California on a vacation before I decided if I really wanted to do it. I was utterly charmed with the sweetness of what I saw with this community of people and how nice the laughter leaders were.”

Chertok can now laugh on command, for no reason. But it wasn’t always so easy for her.

“I had an Indian man who mentored me from California by phone,” Chertok said. “We called them laughter phone calls. He used to call me to check out my laugh. He would say, ‘Better but you need to keep working on it.’”

Chertok stresses that laughter yoga should be practiced regularly because the results are not instantaneous.

“It was like slowly pulling the cork out of a bottle,” Chertok said. “So when I see some people that come and they have a hard time I am very understanding because it was hard for me. I had to force myself to do this.”

There is now research to support the commonly heard truism: laughter is the best medicine. Laughter is an aerobic activity that exercises the lungs, facial muscles and diaphragm. It increases the number of natural killer cells, T cells and B cells of the immune system and stimulates the release of endorphins and serotonin.

Chertok testifies to the health benefits of laughter yoga.

“I have had fewer colds the last two years and I get over them faster,” Chertok said. “When I started doing laughter yoga I used to cough and hack all the time but I don’t do that anymore. Gradually, over time, my breathing has improved. I have not used an inhaler in over two years.”

Laughter yoga is intended to enhance overall well-being, and Chertok has noticed a change in her attitude.

“I do feel more open and more loving and I’m much more open than I was before,” Chertok said. “It’s much more easy for me to open up to people and to reach out in a more loving way.”

Chertok has been cancer free for seven and a half years now, but during her recovery she used laughter yoga to remove negative emotions. Badly burned at ages 12 and 28, Chertok also uses laughter to help release post-traumatic stress.

“Even if I feel a little sad or depressed sometimes I know how to laugh for five minutes now for no reason and it will disappear,” Chertok said. “I can lift the veil of darkness and I can feel great again.”

Studies have proven the correlation between emotion and physical health.

“Psychological research has focused in on a field of study called Psychoneuroimmunology, and one of the things that comes out in the research is the effect that positive emotions can have on the body’s own ability to heal and managing stress and illness,” Chertok said. “Likewise, they know that stress and a lot negative emotions can be the underlying root of illness.”

Chertok is a registered Nurse and has a degree in Anthropology. She leads the St. Louis Laughter Club every Sunday at the Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood.

“It’s so much more than building a business; it’s about building a community,” Chertok said. “I’m doing this primarily for my own healing. I certainly like to get paid; I try to cover my training. But if I had to rely on it as a business, it wouldn’t be as fun anymore.”

Aside from her weekly club, Chertok holds laughter yoga workshops in various settings.

“Some companies are using it to promote team building,” Chertok said. “And my personal thought is that is has the potential of helping people release their stress in a positive way instead of a destructive way.”

Melissa Lesniak, a member of the laughter club, enjoys the experience.

“I come here for the health benefits and to help myself deal with stress and work, and because it’s fun,” Lesniak said. “You get to be a kid again. I have a one year old at home and I try some of this at home and he loves it. I can’t wait for him to be old enough to come here.”

The laughing exercises are often childlike and wouldn’t be out of place in a pre-school classroom. Although in laughter yoga everyone laughs together and attention is not called to the individual, Chertok often finds that her sessions are tougher when the participants are self-conscious adolescents or young adults.

“Play is important for emotional development,” Chertok said. “Laughter yoga is about cultivating playfulness.”

Chertok enjoys conducting laughter yoga sessions in new environments and recently brought her knowledge to teachers in the Parkway School District, hoping to reduce their stress levels.

Sunday May 2 was World Laughter Day, and Chertok’s laughing club, along with clubs around the world, celebrated the joy of laughter.

“It’s about making a choice to be positive no matter what stuff is thrown your way,” Chertok said. “It’s really important to have a place where you can laugh unconditionally.”