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Laugh your way to health
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This weeks feature
Having a good chuckle can be a route to improved health and well-being.
Laughter is the most natural thing in the world. It makes you feel good and research now confirms it actually does you good. Therapists and psychologists use laughter to help people recover from stress, depression and insomnia - and to beat physical pain.
An extra daily dose of laughter can help to manage blood pressure and improve circulation, as well as improve our outlook on life. |
Have a larf. |
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Laughter therapists say we should all reconnect with our 'inner child' - children laugh spontaneously about 400 times a day, while adults clock up a mere five chortles.
Laughing releases muscle tension and can promote the release of 'feel good' endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, says Dr Annette Goodheart, who has been using laughter therapy in America for the past 25 years and stages workshops in the UK.
'When you laugh or cry or enjoy other forms of catharsis there is a rebalancing of body chemistry. There is a relief of stress, tension and pain,' she says.
She believes laughing - like crying - can shift emotional blocks, ease mental distress, and help people deal with physical pain. |
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Mariana Funes, a psychologist and author, says people who laugh a lot tend to feel less defeated at difficult times and are more creative, as well as less self-indulgent.
'We do not laugh enough. We suppress our natural responses to the detriment of our health and happiness. We become socialised into thinking that laughter is something that happens outside the context of work because we lead an 'adult' life - we separate that which is serious, efficient and professional from the funny or the light-hearted.
'If we understood what laughter can do we could remove these self-imposed barriers.'
This theory is echoed by Robert Holden, founder of the Happiness Project based in Oxford. He set up the first free NHS laughter clinic in 1991 in Birmingham but now runs the Project, which offers workshops and forums on all aspects of happiness and joy. |
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'For more than ten years I have lectured to medics, nurses, psychologists and therapists on the healing power of laughter. Mind, body and soul light up whenever you laugh. Laughter promotes health and a happy frame of mind,' he explains.
'We have a motto, "Blessed are they that are able to laugh at themselves because they will never cease to be amused". People think of laughter as a technique, but really it is more a state of mind.' |
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| Health benefits of laughter
The physical act of laughing is described as being akin to 'stationary jogging and internal aerobics', says Robert Holden of the Happiness Project and author of the book 'Shift Happens'.
After a good laugh your body aches, as if you had just done a work-out. Your muscles relax and you go floppy, as if you had jogged on the spot.
As you laugh, carbon dioxide is driven from the lungs in exchange for large intakes of oxygen-rich air. The respiratory system is stimulated, you breathe more deeply and the whole body is oxygenated, which is good physically as well as improving mental fitness and clarity. |
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| A good ten-minute belly laugh can also:
• Produce anti-inflammatory agents, which may help with problems such as arthritis or back pain
• Cause your blood pressure to rise, but then drop below resting level afterwards
• Encourage muscles to relax, releasing physical tension. Laughter can exercise muscles of the scalp, shoulders, arms, abdomen, legs and neck
• Reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone
• Boost production of endorphins, the 'feel good' hormone which can reduce pain sensitivity |
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• Stimulate the area in the brain which controls both laughing and crying, so you may end up, literally, crying with laughter. Tears contain antibodies to fight infection and viruses, as well as keeping the eyes moist and clear
• Exercise facial muscles. A good laugh could help prevent sagging
• Possibly boost immune system responses. |
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Hundreds of medical papers have already been written about the healing benefits of laughter, mainly in the United States, although new research is under way in the UK.
An American, Norman Cousins, first focused the minds of the medical community on the beneficial use of laughter therapy after writing about his own extraordinary experiences in the 'New England Journal of Medicine' in 1976.
Cousins was suffering from a painful spinal condition called ankylosing spondylitis, but claimed that ten minutes of a 'good belly laugh' provided such an anaesthetic effect it allowed him 'two hours of pain-free sleep'.
Cousins watched funny films and asked nurses to read him humorous extracts from books.
He is now acknowledged as a pioneer of laughter medicine, along with the eccentric US doctor Patch Adams, who continues to use laughter every day as a form of healing. |
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| What can laughter therapy treat?
• Pain. There is some debate as to whether laughter acts as a distraction from pain or physiologically boosts the natural painkilling agents in the body. Nevertheless, there is evidence laughter can help with pain control. Dr Annette Goodheart uses laughter therapy to treat patients suffering with pain and finds people feel better after a bout of laughter. She says if you focus your laughter on the area that hurts you will achieve pain relief. |
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• Stress. Mariana Funes says that laughter provides a cathartic release, 'a purifying of emotions and a release of emotional tension'. Laughing, crying, trembling and raging are all cathartic activities, which unlock energy flow. These activities have more to do with rebalancing our bodies than with an expression of happiness. This rebalancing appears to counter the effects of stress, whether the laughter is an expression of joy, anger or fear.
• Relationship problems. Laughter is essential in allowing lasting relationships to run and run, says Robert Holden.
• Work problems. Laughter helps us work better and more creatively. No work team can function without humour, say the experts. A free exchange of laughter between team members enriches each person's work output, loyalty, their willingness to co-operate and appetite for hard work, as well as help in to create an overall sense of team spirit. |
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| A laugh a day keeps the doctor away
GP Dr Mark Levy wrote, in Choice magazine, March 2001, 'A very ill patient once asked me, "How bad is it Doc? Should I start watching that new six-part series on the BBC?" His delightful sense of humour in the face of frightening reality enabled us to have an honest discussion about the fact that he was dying. His indomitable spirit endured until his death.
'The psychological literature is peppered with evidence of the health benefits of laughter. As we laugh, especially a good belly laugh, our physiological state changes for the better, improving our quality of life.
'Humour helps us to see and deal with situations from a different perspective. For example, the statements, "I don't know whether to laugh or cry" or "I laughed until I cried" are familiar to us all.
'Stress in day-to-day work is commonplace. An ability to see the funny side of things is a way of dealing with this. Take my own surgery for example. |
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'I see or speak to between 40 and 50 patients a day. Their problems range from requests for letters to housing associations to severe life-threatening illness. This generates a lot of stress for all those working in the surgery. I need to ensure that I have a good laugh every day to achieve some sort of balance and well-being for myself.
'My advice is to make sure that you also have a good laugh every day. This may be simply by trying to see the funny side of a very difficult situation, reading an amusing story or watching a comedy film.' |
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An exercise in changing attitudes
In her book 'Laughing Matters', Mariana Funes writes that in order for us to laugh, we need the ability to shift our frame of reference. She suggests talking to a friend about a memorable experience, but filtering it through the feeling that 'life is a struggle and change is painful.'
Then think about the same experience, in a more positive frame of mind - such as 'life is a journey and an opportunity to learn.' It is then possible to move the frames of reference in your mind. We shift our attention to a different aspect of experience, one that was there all the time but which we were ignoring. By doing this, we can remind ourselves we have choices about how we view life and one of these frames is that life is a struggle and should be difficult. The notion of play and fun does not fit very well within our Protestant work ethic but viewing life as play is good for your well-being.
Rather than forcing laughter, or thinking we have to rely on jokes, we should try and nurture our 'naturally-occurring' laughter. The release of tension through laughter is a natural physical response in our lives and one of the faults of our society, Mariana suggests, is that we don't teach our children the purpose of emotions. We become misinformed about the real role of laughter in our lives and associate it with something frivolous. 'People do not understand enough about connecting with and working with our emotions - not just laughter but also tears and anger. These are all important in the area of cathartic therapy," she says. |
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| The science of laughter
The science behind the benefits of laughter on the immune and cardiovascular systems has been studied at Hull University, England. Health psychologist Dr Geoff Lowe monitored the physiological reactions of 100 people watching a comedy show. His team studied the production of antibodies in the immune system before, during and after a comedy performance - using a saliva test.
Dr Lowe hoped this would demonstrate, scientifically, that laughter can boost the body's infection-fighting mechanism. He had already proved that laughter plays a part in the healthy lifestyle of moderate drinkers. 'We wanted to find out how much of this might be influenced by lifestyle, and their rate of laughter,' he said. A questionnaire found moderate drinkers thought they laughed more than heavy drinkers or teetotallers - so Dr Lowe invited groups of 30 volunteers to test the theory. Some groups were given the equivalent of 2.5 glasses of wine while others just had a placebo. Trained observers then rated the subsequent giggling and laughter - allowing a one for a smile and five for a belly laugh.
'We showed a significant link between moderate drinkers and higher levels of laughter,' Dr Lowe said. 'We also found laughing is contagious; if one person laughed a lot then others would follow.'
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