Laughter Therapy
Laughter therapy
The website of the National Cancer Institute (http://www.cancer.gov)
A type of therapy that uses humor to help relieve pain and stress and improve a person’s sense of well-being. It may be used to help people cope with a serious disease, such as cancer. Laughter therapy may include laughter exercises, clowns, and comedy movies, books, games, and puzzles. It is a type of complementary therapy. Also called humor therapy.
The following appears on Mayo Clinic website
Laughter isn’t just a quick pick-me-up, though. It’s also good for you over the long term. Laughter may:
- Improve your immune system.Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can affect your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. By contrast, positive thoughts can actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.
- Relieve pain.Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers.
- Increase personal satisfaction.Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people.
- Improve your mood. Many people experience depression, sometimes due to chronic illnesses. Laughter can help lessen your depression and anxiety and may make you feel happier
The following appears on harvard.edu website:
Laughter may also confer health benefits. For the past forty years, studies have shown that good, hearty laughter can relieve tension and stress; boost the immune system, by reducing stress hormones and increasing activity among immune cells and antibodies; and help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, by improving blood flow and blood vessel function.
This study found:
Conclusion: Patients with advanced cancer have lower immunity which is further decreased with surgery or chemotherapy. Chemotherapy patients who undertook the Laughter Therapy using the Smile-Sun Methodology during treatment in the hospital showed significantly higher immunity levels.
Updated 2024