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About Us
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Laughter Helps Improve Health

Use laughter to heal

Laughter changes your point of view

♥ Seeing the humor in an event shifts the way you see the event. Your perspective changes and you view situations in a more realistic and less threatening way.

♥ Humor and laughter can help keep people from being overwhelmed by creating a sense of psychological distance.

♥ Laughing with other people draws you together and creates social bonds. It increases production of endorphins, which make you feel good.

♥ When you laugh it is hard or impossible to feel anxious, angry, or sad.

♥ Laughter can reduce pain.

♥ Laughter is a universal approach to reduce stress and anxiety (discussion Akimbekov and Razzaque 2021).

♥ Spontaneous laughter reduces cortisol levels when compared with other activities (Kramer and Leitao 2023).

♥ Laughter interventions can help improve mental and physical health. Interventions included laughter yoga, laughter therapy, clowns, watching funny videos and comedians. People may benefit by having improved quality of life, mood, and/or well-being. Many people also showed less stress, anxiety, depression, pain and/or fatigue (Stiwi and Rosendahl 2022).

Bee butt up in purple flower by Susan Fluegel

 

Frans Hals The Jolly Reveller c1640-1643 oil on canvas.

Frans Hals, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

People who laugh live longer and have less heart disease

In this study, Sakurada et al. (2020) followed 17,152 men and women (over 40 years old) for over five years. had an annual health check where they self reported how much they laughed (ranging from greater than once a week to less than once a month).

During the 5 year study, death from any cause (all-cause mortality) and cardiovascular disease incidence were significantly higher among subjects who laughed less. Laughter was dose dependant. People's had better heart health and less chance of death the more they laughed (Sakurada et al. 2020).

Viewing a funny show for 30 min reduced arterial stiffness (Vlachopoulos et al. 2009). More arterial stiffness increases cardiovascular risk. Seniors (average age 77 years old) who watched stand-up comedy once a week for four weeks had a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate. Their serotonin levels increased while the amount of a stress hormone, chromogranin A, decreased (Yoshikawa et al. 2018).

Take this as your permission to watch funny animal videos for medicinal purposes!

Spontaneous laughter reduces whole body inflammation

One of the reasons laughter may help with heart health and other metabolic syndrome risk factors is that it reduces inflammation.

Genuine spontaneous laughter is associated with lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is an essential hormone that regulates the bodies response to stress. Excess cortisol can cause inflammation, weight gain, elevated blood pressure, acne, fatigue, problems concentrating and other unpleasant symptoms.

Even a single real laughter session caused a significant reduction in cortisol (36.7%) in a series of eight studies (315 participants; mean age 38.6). In five studies people watched a humor/comedy video; two studies had a trained laughter therapist conducting laughter sessions; and one study looked at a self-administered laughter program. These studies found that there was a greater reduction in cortisol levels with spontaneous laughter (32%) when compared with other non-humorous activities (Kramer and Leitao 2023).

Healthy young men and women (35 people, 18-24 years old) who participated in Laughter Yoga reduced the amount of stress hormones, cortisol, that were released in response to several stressful situations such as doing mental math and a fake job interview (Meier et al. 2021).

In addition, laughter combats stress and inflammation by decreasing serum levels of cortisol, epinephrine, growth hormone, and 3,4-dihydrophenylacetic acid (formed when dopamine breaks down) (Yim 2016).

Mirthful laughter decreases stress and improves natural killer (NK) cell activity

Women who watched a funny video of their choice decreased stress and increased immune function by improving NK activity compared to women who were unfortunate enough to watch a tourism video. Natural killer cells are a type of white blood cell that identifies and kills infected, stressed or cancer cells. Only people who actually laughed while watching the video had increased immune function (Bennett et al. 2003).

Baby goat on log by Susan Fluegel

Laughter may help you lose weight and feel better

People (198 women and 37 men, 43-79 years old) who had metabolic syndrome risk factors participated in a 12 week study on laughter intervention. Compared to the control group, the people receiving laughter intervention significantly improved both physical and psychological functions including body weight, body mass index (BMI), subjective stress, subjective well-being, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) (Funakubo et al. 2022).

The laughter program was either a 30-min lecture about laughter, health, and diseases; or a 30-min appreciation of rakugo by a professional performer of rakugo. This is a traditional form of Japanese comic storytelling in which one person plays all the roles in the story. After this was a 60-min laughter yoga class. People attended 8-10 times in a 12 week period.

Laughter can help people with lung disorders

Pulmonary tuberculosis patients (age 34-66 years old) were assigned to either a laughter therapy group or a control group for 8 weeks. Laughter therapy was twice a week for 1 hour. People participated in stretching (10 min), singing and dancing to three popular songs chosen by participants (10 min), various laughing activities (20 min), breathing exercises (10 min), and mediative breathing (10 min) as the cool down. 

Compared to the control group, the laughing group had a significant improvement in pulmonary (lung) function, less physical symptoms (fatigue, coughing, dyspnea, lethargy, appetite loss, stomach upsets and nausea, drug side effects and more), a reduction in depression and an improvement in health-related quality of life (QOL) (Jang et al. 2022).

Laughter increases pain tolerance

Spontaneous laughter increases people's pain tolerance. While watching funny videos people had more pain tolerance compared to when the same person was watching a factual documentary. Pain tolerance was tested by having people put their hands in a frozen vacuum wine cooler sleeve (-16 &dC). Women and men also had significantly higher pain tolerance after either watching or acting in a humorous live play when compared to either watching or performing in a drama live play (Dunbar et al. 2012).

Stand up comedy (30 minutes once a week) for a month reduced blood pressure, alleviated pain, reduced depression, increased socialness and increased serotonin in older people (Yoshikawa et al. 2018).

Blue Box of Science: Why does laughter increase pain tolerance?

Social laughter triggers the release of our natural opioids.

People in the study had two PET scans. The first one was after they spent 30 min of quality time alone in the testing room; likely wondering why they signed up for this boring experiment. The second time was after a 30 min social laughter session where they watched comedy clips with close friends.

Spontaneous laughter from watching comedy with friends increased pleasurable sensations and triggered endogenous opioid release in numerous brain regions (thalamus, caudate nucleus, and anterior insula)(Manninen et al. 2017).

Endogenous opioids and their receptors are a group of neurotransmitters that play a role in regulating pain, emotions, stress responses, reward system, motivation, drug addiction, and autonomic control.

The Temple of Mirth William Blake c1784.

British Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Laughter belongs on the job

Leaders with a sense of humor improve productivity

Humor improves creativity and innovation in the workplace. Having a supervisor with a sense of humor increases employee innovative behavior through work engagement (Zhang et al. 2020). 

Charlie Chaplin reads Film Fun, 1915.

AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Laughter improves mental health when job hunting

Laughing reduces physical and mental stress. Laughing can help combat the stress of job searching. Korean student nurses (48 people, 87% were women) received classes on laughter therapy. The group was in their 4th year and starting their employment search. It is stressful because there are more applicants than positions.

Compared to the control group, the nurses that went through laughter therapy had a significant decrease in employment stress and psychological stress, and a significant increase in subjective happiness (Lee and Lee 2020).

Laughter Therapy or Laughter Yoga is a cognitive-behavioral therapy that improves mental, physical, and social health 

Laughter yoga improves resilience levels and sleep quality

Stressed out nurses during COVID pandemic signed up for a laughter study. Nurses attended eight sessions of laughter yoga (two days a week for four weeks) via Zoom.

Laughter yoga significantly improved sleep quality and resilience levels when compared to the control group (Çeli and Kılınç 2022).

Want to try a little Do It Yourself Laughter Therapy or Laughter Yoga?

Check out these types of Laughter Therapy

Humor therapy: read and watch funny books, TV programs, stories, movies, or cartoons.

Laughter meditation: similar to traditional mediation but includes stretching, laughing, and/or crying along with a meditative silence.

Laughter Yoga: playful therapy that starts with stretching your body and face; and moves on to singing, chanting and/or dancing to help relax. Your session may include improvisational comedy exercises, citing positive affirmations, deep breathing, and meditation

References:

Akimbekov NS, Razzaque MS. Laughter therapy: A humor-induced hormonal intervention to reduce stress and anxiety. Curr Res Physiol. 2021;4:135-138. doi: 10.1016/j.crphys.2021.04.002. Full article.

Bennett MP, Zeller JM, Rosenberg L, McCann J. The effect of mirthful laughter on stress and natural killer cell activity. Altern Ther Health Med. 2003 Mar-Apr;9(2):38-45. PMID: 12652882. Full article.

Dunbar RI, Baron R, Frangou A, Pearce E, van Leeuwen EJ, Stow J, Partridge G, MacDonald I, Barra V, van Vugt M. Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold. Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Mar 22;279(1731):1161-7. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1373. Full article.

Funakubo N, Eguchi E, Hayashi R, Hirosaki M, Shirai K, Okazaki K, Nakano H, Hayashi F, Omata J, Imano H, Iso H, Ohira T. Effects of a laughter program on body weight and mental health among Japanese people with metabolic syndrome risk factors: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Geriatr. 2022 Apr 23;22(1):361. doi: 10.1186/s12877-022-03038-y. Full article.

Jang KS, Oh JE, Jeon GS. Effects of Simulated Laughter Therapy Using a Breathing Exercise: A Study on Hospitalized Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 17;19(16):10191. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191610191. Full article.

Kramer CK, Leitao CB. Laughter as medicine: A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventional studies evaluating the impact of spontaneous laughter on cortisol levels. PLoS One. 2023 May 23;18(5):e0286260. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286260. Full article.

Lee JS, Lee SK. The Effects of Laughter Therapy for the Relief of Employment-Stress in Korean Student Nurses by Assessing Psychological Stress Salivary Cortisol and Subjective Happiness. Osong Public Health Res Perspect. 2020 Feb;11(1):44-52. doi: 10.24171/j.phrp.2020.11.1.07. Full article.

Manninen S, Tuominen L, Dunbar RI, Karjalainen T, Hirvonen J, Arponen E, Hari R, Jääskeläinen IP, Sams M, Nummenmaa L.  Social Laughter Triggers Endogenous Opioid Release in Humans. J Neurosci. 2017 Jun 21;37(25):6125-6131. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0688-16.2017. Full article.

Meier M, Wirz L, Dickinson P, Pruessner JC. Laughter yoga reduces the cortisol response to acute stress in healthy individuals. Stress. 2021 Jan;24(1):44-52. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2020.1766018. Full article.

Sakurada K, Konta T, Watanabe M, Ishizawa K, Ueno Y, Yamashita H, Kayama T. Associations of Frequency of Laughter With Risk of All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence in a General Population: Findings From the Yamagata Study. J Epidemiol. 2020 Apr 5;30(4):188-193. doi: 10.2188/jea.JE20180249. Full article.

Si S Çeli K A, Kılınç T. The effect of laughter yoga on perceived stress, burnout, and life satisfaction in nurses during the pandemic: A randomized controlled trial. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2022 Nov;49:101637. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101637. Full article.

Stiwi K &Rosendahl J. Efficacy of laughter-inducing interventions in patients with somatic or mental health problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials,
Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice,Volume 47, 2022, 101552,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2022.101552. Full article.

Vlachopoulos C, Xaplanteris P, Alexopoulos N, Aznaouridis K, Vasiliadou C, Baou K, Stefanadi E, Stefanadis C. Divergent effects of laughter and mental stress on arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics. Psychosom Med. 2009 May;71(4):446-53. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e318198dcd4. Abstract.

Yim J. Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter in Mental Health: A Theoretical Review. Tohoku J Exp Med. 2016 Jul;239(3):243-9. doi: 10.1620/tjem.239.243. Full article.

Yoshikawa Y, Ohmaki E, Kawahata H, Maekawa Y, Ogihara T, Morishita R, Aoki M. Beneficial effect of laughter therapy on physiological and psychological function in elders. Nurs Open. 2018 Jul 18;6(1):93-99. doi: 10.1002/nop2.190. Full article.

Zhang J, Su W. Linking Leader Humor to Employee Innovative Behavior: The Roles of Work Engagement and Supervisor's Organizational Embodiment. Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 14;11:592999. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.592999. Full article.