Laughter is the Best Preventative Medicine
By Linda Hollinger-Smith
A new research study demonstrates the role that laughter plays in reducing risk factors associated with diabetes.
Theories of whole-person wellness have been subjected to scientific inquiry for over 20 years. The connection between the body, mind, and spirit has recently become part of the mainstream in the medical community; however, laypeople have understood the connections between the psychological, social, and physical determinates of health for far longer.
In the 1970s, Norman Cousins built upon the link between stress and health, theorizing that if stress could worsen his condition, then positive emotions could improve his health. To test his theory, Cousins treated himself to a regimen of comedic videos and television shows. The result was a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine called "The Anatomy of an Illness: A Patient’s Perspective," which outlined his experience as his disease went into remission.
Since that time, medical researchers have taken this link between stress and health more seriously, most directly in the work of Dr. Lee Berk. Berk discovered that the anticipation of “mirthful laughter” increased two important hormones related to mood and immunity: Beta-endorphins and human growth hormone. The hormones increased significantly in study subjects who anticipated watching a humorous video later in the day, while those who did not anticipate watching a humorous film experienced no hormonal increase.
Expanding upon this study, researchers later found that the same anticipation of laughter significantly reduced the levels of three detrimental stress hormones: Cortisol, epinephrine, and dopac, high levels of which can disrupt the immune system and increase the chance of illness.
Dr. Berk has recently teamed up with Dr. Stanley Tan, an endocrinologist and diabetes specialist at Oak Crest Health Research Institute in Loma Linda, California, to examine the effect of laughter on individuals with diabetes. They have found that laughter works as preventive therapy in diabetes care by raising good cholesterol levels and reducing inflammation.
In this new study, a group of 20 high-risk diabetic patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia (statins) were divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental, laughter group. Both groups were started on standard medications for diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. The researchers followed both groups for 12 months, testing their blood for the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine; HDL cholesterol; inflammatory cytokines TNF-α IFN-γ and IL-6, which contribute to the acceleration of atherosclerosis; and C-reactive proteins (hs-CRP), a marker of inflammation and cardiovascular disease. The experimental group scheduled viewings of self-selected comedic programs for 30 minutes a day in addition to the standard therapies described above.
By the second month of the study, the patients in the laughter group demonstrated lower levels of stress. They also had increased HDL (good) cholesterol levels and lower levels of inflammation. At the end of one year, the research team saw significant improvement in the laughter group, such that HDL cholesterol had risen by 26% (versus only 3% in the control group). Likewise, harmful C-reactive proteins decreased by 66% in the laughter group versus 26% in the control group.
The study suggests that adding prescribed humor to standard diabetes care may lower stress and inflammatory response and increase "good" cholesterol levels. The authors conclude that mirthful laughter may thus lower the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome, although further studies need to be done to expand and elucidate these findings.
Source: Berk, L., Tan, S. Mirthful Laughter as Adjunct Therapy in Diabetic Care Increases HDL Cholesterol and Attenuates Inflammatory Cytokines and hs-CRP and Possible CVD Risk. The findings were presented at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Physiological Society, which is part of the Experimental Biology 2009 Scientific Conference in New Orleans.
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