Your health improvement may be a laugh away
Laughter is widely acknowledged as having a positive psychological benefit, but current research is now beginning to show that laughter may also have serious positive physiological effects.
I recently read the following statement in the Daniel Kahneman bestseller Thinking, Fast and Slow: “Being amused tends to make you smile and smiling tends to make you feel amused.” This he concludes can unconsciously influence your thoughts and feelings. Smiling is prone to evoke the emotions that are good for your health.
This got me thinking – is there any research that supports that smiling and laughing is good for your health? The cliché laughter is the best medicine immediately came to mind. As coincidence wanted it, my pink serviette at lunch was inscribed with the following: Smile, live joyfully, laugh a little every day.
Laughter is widely acknowledged as having a positive psychological benefit, but current research is now beginning to show that laughter may also have serious positive physiological effects. Until 1979 laughter was not perceived to have any particular healing effect until Norman Cousins, in his book Anatomy of an Illness described laughter as creating pain relief in a serious arthritic condition. Since then, interest in laughter as a potential therapeutic option and area for research has grown.
The known psychological benefits achieved through laughter includes improvement in mood, depression, anxiety, and stress as well as increase in life satisfaction. Because of the research indicating the positive health effects, doctors may prescribe laughter to their patients.
Laughter therapies have been applied in a wide range of settings, from children to the elderly, to improve health and well-being. The application of this therapy is applied to improve outcomes along with other prescribed modalities in mental health conditions, cancer, diabetes, migraine, and other chronic conditions.
Two types of laughter are described: 1. Spontaneous laughter, or genuine laughter, (humorous laughter) is laughter triggered by a stimulus e.g., a joke; and 2. Simulated laughter, or so-called self-induced laughter, which is voluntarily and consciously triggered by oneself in a controlled environment, and by definition is not caused by humour or other stimuli. It can also be performed in group sessions led by a facilitator or in laughing yoga classes.
So given that humour and laughter can be beneficial, your doctor may prescribe laughter as therapy, tailored for you, and give detailed information as to the frequency, intensity, time, and type of laughter whilst taking into consideration your own sense of humour and willingness to engage in new activities, such as laughter yoga. For the laughter prescriptions to be effective, laughter “treatments” will typically meet certain criteria such as frequency of therapy i.e., occur once a week or more, for 30 to 60 minutes. Your doctor will explain in detail how you need to use the “prescription”.
The laughter prescription may look something like this:
- Frequency: once or twice a week
- Intensity: belly laughing
- Time: 30 to 40 minutes
- Type: Spontaneous use of humour from your favourite sit-com / Simulated alone or in group laughing yoga class
Research has shown that simulated or self-induced laughter can capture all the positive benefits of spontaneous laughter—but without using any humour at all.
The use of laughter or laughter “therapy” is also used to introduce a more creative approach to lifestyle change. As more examples, in patients with a depressed mood the introduction of laughing therapy was successfully used to reverse decreased physical activity and weight gain and mood. It was also used in older people with dementia resulting in a positive outcome.
To conclude, your doctor is not joking when “laughter” is prescribed, – whether spontaneous or simulated. Although research has not given all the answers on health benefits, you need to consider this advice seriously especially as this prescription is “natural”, it comes for free, it is easily accessible and definitely translates into measurable positive benefits and important, it comes without side effects.
Dr. Martin de Villiers is the Medical Director at Medwell SA. For more information visit www.medwell.co.za
