Ha, ha. feel better? There’s a whole body of research telling us that chuckles ease pain, pump the immune system, strengthen the cardiovascular system and soothe depression. But can you really do serious healing watching The Big Bang Theory or an Adam Sandler flick? Do giggles, guffaws and belly laughs have systemic effects that actually last? The research doesn’t answer a lot of questions, nor does it tell us what the prescribed dosage might be. Hmm.
Do you need non-stop intravenous comedy to really feel the effects?
What the experts say…
“Studies show a positive effect from a brief period of laughter, 30 minutes to an hour. I tell people we don’t know the appropriate dose or how long the response lasts. If you laugh every day, will you build up immunity or get a cumulative effect? Other studies show that while you’re laughi ng, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, but afterwards there’s a relaxation response – you take deep breaths and your muscles relax. Whether that’s significant we don’t know. Is that enough to impact cardiovascular health over the long term? I would guess not. The effect in diabetics looks interesting. But most of these studies are very small.”
MARY BENNETT, director, WKU School of Nursing, Bowling Green, Kentucky
“The relationship between immuno-enhancement and pain and stress reduction is fairly well established. Asthmatics have an easier time in terms of bronchoconstriction with mild laughter, but extreme humour is a negative. According to studies, if you give adults with diabetes a meal and a comedy performance and measure blood glucose levels before and after the comedy, laughter reduces levels. People with staph bacteria on their skin show a significant reduction of bacteria after a week of regular exposure to humour. Studies have related laughter to a reduction in cytokines, known to play a causal role in arthritis.”
PAUL McGHEE, author of Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience, Wilmington, Delaware
“I haven’t come across any empirical studies showing that laughter can alleviate depression. Without these, it’s highly questionable to tout new treatments for emotional disorders. Anecdotally, most people who laugh say it’s enjoyable and they feel better. But this is a far cry from the more comprehensive type of intervention needed to treat a disorder as complex as depression.”
ZINDEL V. SEGAL, Cameron Wilson Chair in Depression Studies, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
“From my research over 40 years, I’ve found that people with a friendly sense of humour are less likely to have health problems compared with those scoring low on sense of humour. This means that when they get a cold, it may have a milder course. There’s a suggestion of increased survival into retirement age among people who fall into the upper half on a measure of sense of humour. My measure presents questions along three related dimensions: sensitivity to humorous messages (cognitive), liking of humorous situations and individuals (social) and mirthfulness that is not always displayed to others (affective). This doesn’t mean that individuals with a great and friendly sense of humour won’t get ill and die early.”
SVEN SVEBAK, professor of neuroscience, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
“I’ve reviewed the scientific research, and the evidence is much weaker than people think. There is evidence that humour increases pain tolerance, perhaps through the production of endorphins in the brain. However, there’s not much to show that humour improves immunity, reduces heart disease, lowers blood pressure, kills cancer, etc. In fact, there is some indication that people with a strong sense of humour tend to die at an earlier age. This is likely due to the fact that they tend to be less serious about everything, including health risks. They’re more likely to smoke, take drugs, drink alcohol and engage in risky activities.”
ROD MARTIN, author, The Psychology Of Humor: An Integrative Approach, professor of psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
“I have to agree with those who say there hasn’t been a lot of good research. My impression is that this is an area with some promising preliminary results, but a lot more studies have to be done. My clinical impression is that laughter probably offers more promise for less severely depressed patients.”
ROBERT G. COOKE, psychiatrist, Mood Disorders Clinic at CAMH, professor of psychiatry, University of Toronto
