Read This If You Want To Laugh Your Way To Good Health!

Laughter therapy is the use of humor as a complementary treatment for people suffering from physical or emotional disorders. In medical facilities, laughter therapy is usually available in a special room in the hospital or ambulatory care facility. These are rooms where patients can go to relax and get away for a while from the medical atmosphere. Usually, these rooms contain small libraries that include humorous books, videos, toys, and other amusing objects.

Some hospitals have volunteers who wheel carts filled with books, toys, audio and videotapes, and other objects to patients' rooms. Trained laughter therapists are also available in some cities, and patients or family members often try humor therapy on their own.

Some states have volunteers with established transportable humor and laughter programs, consisting of cartons of items that they bring to inpatient facilities when invited. The items include rubber chickens and water pistols, which patients apparently use to everyone's amusement with their physicians and dietary staff.

Humor also involves one on one interactions between patients and caregivers. One can benefit from reading, listening to, or viewing what they find funny. Because people differ in what they think is funny and what makes them laugh, laughter therapy is often individualized.

Laughter as a complementary therapy is recognized as helpful for many patient groups in many medical circumstances, all of which are complementary. Advocates do not claim that humor or laughter cures disease. Humor therapy is brought to cancer patients, sick children, people under treatment for depression, the elderly in nursing homes, cardiac patients, and other groups. The main goal of the therapy is to improve the quality of life, provide symptom relief by distracting the patient from constant awareness of pain, and improve emotional and psychological health by encouraging relaxation and stress reduction.

As part of support programs for patients, humor can provide a means of communication between patients and their caregivers and loved ones. Often it does this by serving as an icebreaker, allowing patients to convey their ideas or feelings that are often difficult or awkward to express in other ways.

Although common sense would seem to be the rationale for including laughter and humor in patient care settings, laughter has a long history in medical practice. Laughter was used as an "anesthetic" to distract patients during surgical procedures in the 13th century, and other references to it appear in ancient medical literature. Reports of the physiological benefits of laughter are also found in the American medical literature from the early years of the 20th century.

The physiological effects of laughter include an increase in heart rate, breathing rate, and oxygen consumption, which in turn stimulate the circulatory system. Laughter also massages and exercises the muscles and organs involved in breathing, as well as causing the release of endorphins, which are the body's natural morphinelike compounds that help control pain. Advocates believe that these physiological effects explain the therapeutic benefits of laughter and humor.


Researches have documented the physiological effects of laughter, and anecdotal reports describe patients' appreciation and positive experiences with humor and laughter. A recent university-based research concluded that laughing lowers blood pressure and increases muscle flexibility in addition to releasing endorphins. Endorphins not only reduce pain; they also induce a degree of euphoria, and therefore may further enhance the positive effects of laughter.

Furthermore, there are evidence indicating that laughter increases immune activity, and that it can reduce levels of cortisol, a stress hormone associated with suppressing the immune system. The results of other investigations show that laughter increases natural killer cell activity in the immune system. These studies are preliminary, and so far have limited clinical implications.

All in all, laughter and humor are distracting and uplifting. They help people cope with stress and illness, and create an environment that is relaxing. They certainly enhances the quality of life for people in general.