“This grandfather was reading to his grandchild, and he said, ‘We’re going to read fairy tales.’ And the grandchild says, ‘Does every fairy tale start with ‘Once upon a time?’’ And he said, ‘Most of them start like, ‘If I’m elected, I will …’’”

Healthy laughter erupts at Iowa state Capitol

Kate Garst and Diana Lopez don’t know each other, but they sure know how to make each other laugh.


They met in the rotunda of the Iowa Capitol this afternoon by chance, and within moments were leaning into one another like old friends – Garst’s booming laughter echoing off all the marble and Lopez’s teary eyes clamped tight against a giggle just this side of hyperventilation.


Lopez, a state Department of Revenue employee, and Garst, a retired doctor, just happened to be at the Statehouse in time for Laugh Out Loud Day, an effort by Iowa’s Healthiest State Initiative to spread the health virtues of laughter.


Usually when people think about improving health, they think about diet and exercise, said Liz Cox, a project manager for the Healthy State Initiative. But just as important is emotional health – and laughter can go a long way to improving it.
“We all understand that laughter is fun, but it also lowers your blood pressure, and a good belly laugh uses every muscle in your body,” Cox said.


It’s particularly powerful as a stress-reliever, and reducing stress is a major component of emotional health.


“There’s really three good ways to metabolize stress, and laughter is one of them,” Cox said. “If you take time to de-stress and have a laugh, it energizes your brain.”


(The other stress relievers are sleep and exercise.)


Perhaps a hundred state employees, West Des Moines schoolchildren bystanders and onlookers took time to laugh and de-stress at the Capitol event, where Gov. Terry Branstad read and signed a proclamation announcing April 2 as Laugh Out Loud Day in Iowa.

Buttons the Clown "shines" Gov. Terry Branstad's shoes at Laugh Out Loud Day at the Iowa Capitol

Clowns from Korn Patch Klowns wandered through plying the crowd with balloons, silk flowers and oversized coins. Buttons the Clown even shined Branstad’s shoes – with a flashlight.


Third graders from Phenix Elementary School in West Des Moines – invited as the reigning winners of the healthiest schools in Iowa contest – batted beach balls around the rotunda, and then were led in a fitness routine by state Department of Public Health employees dressed as fruits and vegetables.


State Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, wandered through at one point, and paused to gaze out over the crowd of clowns, children and TV cameras.


“There must be some snide political comment I could make,” he said, without much of a smile on his face. “But I’ll refrain.”


When Branstad appeared, he didn’t wear a goofy hat or a big red nose, but he did tell a joke:

“This grandfather was reading to his grandchild, and he said, ‘We’re going to read fairy tales.’ And the grandchild says, ‘Does every fairy tale start with ‘Once upon a time?’’ And he said, ‘Most of them start like, ‘If I’m elected, I will …’’”

That won applause, and not a few laughs.


“I’m not the greatest joke-teller,” Branstad said through the cheers, “but I thought that was pretty good.”


In addition to Monday’s Capitol event, the Healthiest State Initiative — which aims to make Iowa the healthiest state in the country by 2016 — is circulating information sheets on boosting laughter at school, at colleges and universities, in the workplace and even at church.


The efforts appear to build on an already high level of jocularity and emotional health among Iowans. The Gallup-Healthways state Well-Being Index, which the initiative is using to measure the state’s healthiness, rates Iowa eighth in the nation when it comes to emotional health.


The real laughter on Monday got going after Branstad’s joke and after he read his official proclamation. In a calamitous blast of cheers, cowbells, plastic hand-clappers and real hands clapping the crowd erupted in real laughter that bounced off the walls and infected even the stoniest of Capitol faces.

State employee Diana Lopez, left, and retired doctor Kate Garst share a laugh at the Iowa Capitol during Laugh Out Loud day.

No laugh was as loud as Garst’s.


The Des Moines doctor was in the Capitol by chance – she had come by to pick up a plaque her family received after donating land to the state’s Department of Natural Resources. But once in the midst of the rotunda rabble, she was overcome by a long chain of ha-ha-ha-ha quartets, broken only by gasps for air.


“I can’t stop!” she said between guffaws.


Standing next to her was Lopez, the Revenue employee, who was driven almost to tears by Garst’s exuberance.


“You greatly made me laugh, and I needed it,” Lopez told Garst once they’d calmed down. “We’re just out on our walk and thought we’d stop in for a good laugh.”


As a doctor, Garst said she could vouch for the healthful effects of laughter, but she also knows from personal experience. She retired from her medical practice after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she said, and laughing both at herself and at her disease has been hugely therapeutic.


“During the worst periods of my life, laughter and the ability to laugh at myself and the horror of my situation” – she broke into quick ha-quartet – “has got me through,” Garst said.