Bertrand Russell, mathematician and philosopher, but notably, not a physician said: "Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine."
When I was growing up, the first pages I read in Reader’s Digest were the funnies—Life in These United States, Humor in Uniform, All in a Day’s Work, and, of course, Laughter, the Best Medicine. We’ve heard all our lives that laughter is medicine. Is it true?
Articles on the topic of laughter as the best medicine abound all over the internet; however, I wanted those with a scientific bent to them. Fortunately, there were a few of those as well. Complementary and alternative medicine practitioners are increasingly using laughter to manage chronic diseases for which there is no cure. We know that a patient’s emotional state affects the course of a disease. Laughter is widely accepted as having a beneficial effect.
Laughter exerts this positive effect because it reduces the amount of cortisol, often referred to as the stress hormone, in the blood. Reducing the amount of cortisol exerts far-ranging effects throughout the body.[1] [2]
USAGE
· Cardiovascular
o Daily laughter lowered risk of cardiovascular disease[3]
o Daily laughter lowered risk of stroke[4]
o Improved vascular function lasted 24 hours after watching comedy movie[5]
· Dental/Oral
o Better overall oral health observed in elderly people who laughed 1-5 times per week (as measured by how many teeth they still had)[6]
· Endocrine
o Reduces post-prandial (after eating) increase in blood sugars[7]
· Neurological
o Dementia[10]
o Insomnia[13]
o Schizophrenia[14]
· Respiratory
o Bronchial asthma[15]
· Other
o Improved immune response[16] [17]
o Increase resilience—a sense of humor helps bounce back from adversity[18]
o New perspective—to view a situation as less of a threat and more of a challenge[19]
In conclusion, with all the Band-Aids, antibiotics, splints, and Tylenol, don’t forget to stock some comedies that people can watch over and over again, a generous variety of good comic books that will appeal to a wide range of tastes—we like Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side here, and other good reads—The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, by Farley Mowat, will appeal to ages 5-95. A few laughter-inducing games would be fantastic. (Chess and Pandemic probably wouldn’t work here. Games like Things and Apples to Apples would be really good.) In addition, keep in mind that people laugh more when they are with friends and family than when they are alone or with strangers.[24]
And a personal note for Michael and any others who enjoyed last week's nugget about Blueberry Girl winning the cast iron and soap debate. Much to the kids' sorrow, I donated all our comic books to the thrift store a couple of years ago. The books were always in the bathroom and they'd never put them away. And most of them don't live at home anymore. So now I have to buy replacement books. Sigh.
(Two hours later) And now you can laugh again, because I shared my lament with Ellie, and she found all those comic books in a place they didn't belong, buried under her belongings in her bedroom.
[1] CK Kramer, et al., Laughter as medicine: A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventional studies evaluating the impact of spontaneous laughter on cortisol levels, PLoS One, 23 May 2023, Vol 18 No 5, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10204943/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[2] Michelle Graff-Radford, Laughter is the best medicine, Mayo Clinic, 23 April 2019, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/living-with-mild-cognitive-impairment-mci/newsfeed-post/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-1/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[3] K Hayashi, et al., Laughter is the Best Medicine? A Cross-Sectional Study of Cardiovascular Disease Among Older Japanese Adults, Journal of Epidemiology, 5 October 2016, Vol 26 No 10, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5037252/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[4] Hayashi, et al., Laughter is the Best Medicine.
[5] J Sugawara, et al., Effect of mirthful laughter on vascular function, American Journal of Cardiology, 15 September 2010, Vol 106 No 6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20816128/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[6] M Hirosaki, et al., Association between frequency of laughter and oral health among community-dwelling older adults: a population-based cross-sectional study in Japan, Quality of Life Research, June 2021, Vol 30 No 6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33432445/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[7] Keiko Hayashi, et al., Laughter lowered the increase in post-prandial blood glucose, Diabetes Care, May 2003, Vol 26 No 5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12716853/ (accessed 10 January 2024).
[8] A Si̇s Çeli̇k, et al., The effect of laughter yoga on perceived stress, burnout, and life satisfaction in nurses during the pandemic: A randomized controlled trial, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Vol 49, 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744388122001050?via%3Dihub (accessed 11 January 2024).
[9] Graff-Radford.
[10] L Fonzi, et al., Riso e depressione: ipotesi di rapporto patogenetico e terapeutico [Laughter and depression: hypothesis of pathogenic and therapeutic correlation], Riv Psichiatr, January-February 2010, Vol 45 No 1, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20380236/ (accessed 10 January 2024).
[11] Si̇s Çeli̇k, et al., The effect of laughter yoga.
[12] Graff-Radford.
[13] A Sis Çelik, et al., The Effect of Laughter Yoga on the Psychological Resilience and Sleep Quality of Nurses During the Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, July 2023, Vol 29 No 5, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37023316/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[14] SL Cheng, et al., Incongruent Expression of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Cortisol in Schizophrenia: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial of Laughter Intervention, Psychiatry Investigation, Vol 17 No 12, December 2020, https://www.psychiatryinvestigation.org/journal/view.php?doi=10.30773/pi.2020.0269 (accessed 11 January 2024).
[15] H Kimata, Effect of viewing a humorous vs. nonhumorous film on bronchial responsiveness in patients with bronchial asthma, Physiology and Behavior, June 2004, Vol 81 No 4, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15178163/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[16] K Takahashi, et al., The elevation of natural killer cell activity induced by laughter in a crossover designed study, International Journal of Molecular Medicine, December 2001, Vol 8 No 6, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11712080/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[17] Graff-Radford.
[18] Graff-Radford.
[19] Graff-Radford.
[20] M Weisenberg, et al., The influence of film-induced mood on pain perception, Pain, June 1998, Vol 76 No 3, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9718255/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[21] N Cousins, Anatomy of an illness (as perceived by the patient), New England Journal of Medicine, 23 December 1976, Vol 295 No 26, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/995143/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[22] M Stuber, et al., Laughter, humor and pain perception in children: a pilot study, Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, June 2009, Vol 6 No 2, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686629/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
[23] Graff-Radford.
[24] MS Buchowski, et al., Energy expenditure of genuine laughter, International Journal of Obesity (Lond), January 2007, Vol 31 No 1, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518926/ (accessed 11 January 2024).
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