A doctor's visit with a healthy dose of the giggles

The news these days just doesn't seem to lighten up and sometimes we need a laugh.

That's the specialty of Tita Begashaw, a laughter coach at Harborview Medical Center.

What does that mean? She hosts a laughter club twice a month where patients, families, and staff get together — and just laugh.

The hospital, which receives some of the most traumatized patients in our region, thought it'd be healthy to have a care-free outlet for people to cut loose.

Begashaw said it sounds simple, but adults just don't laugh as often as they should.

“We wait for a joke, but we were born with laughter,” Begashaw said. “They say children laugh 300, 400 times per day. When you become an adult? Fifteen times a day.

"We forgot how to laugh. We need to laugh more, we need to have fun, we need to enjoy life.”

Carolyn Camposano found out about the club when she had a hospital stay a few weeks ago. She still comes back just for the laughs.

"I didn't know what it was going to be like. I just showed up and I was amazed at what happened and how the people reacted. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is so invigorating, we gotta do this more often, you know?’” Camposano said.

Begashaw said everyone — sick or healthy — should stop in for a dose of humor.

"When you laugh it makes you feel good, it’s good for your immune system. You don’t worry when you laugh,” she said.

Begashaw's club meets the first and third Tuesday of the month at Harborview Medical Center.

If you can't make it to the club, you can see Begashaw in action on the TV show America's Got Talent in 2016.