Humour as Therapy?

Spring/Summer 2009

Humour therapy is the use of humour aiming to relieve physical, emotional or psychological pain. It is also used to relieve stress.

This therapy is used as a complementary method to promote health, aid in the healing process, encourage relaxation and help improve coping with illness. Humour can reduce the experience of pain. It does this in part by increasing pain tolerance. Release of certain neurotransmitters in the brain – including endorphins – also helps to control pain. Reduction in stress hormones and muscle relaxation as well as providing (positive) distraction also helps.

Many articles have been written about humour enhancing quality of life. Norman Cousins, in his book Anatomy of an Illness, describes how he cured an immune-mediated illness in part using a regimen of laughter.

In 1989, The Journal of the American Medical Association had an article discussing humour therapy programs improving quality of life for people with chronic problems. Also discussed was laughter having an immediate symptom-relieving effect. This positive effect was potentiated when laughter was induced on a regular basis.

Some hospitals have set up special humour rooms. In the USA, a 1999 study found that about 1 in 5 National Cancer Institute treatment centres offered humour therapy.

There are various types of therapy used including Humour Therapy, Clown Therapy (this is the work of our wonderful and highly talented Clown Doctors), Laughter Therapy, Laughter Meditation and Laughter Yoga. Some are used by clinicians and other mental health professionals, and professional performers who have trained in this field.

So while “Laughter is the best medicine” is considered by some to be a cliché, specific medical theories do attribute improved health and wellbeing to laughter. It has been shown that laughter helps protect the heart by reducing inflammatory reactions in the endothelium (the lining of the blood vessels) thus reducing cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries.

This, of course, is a great reminder to remember to enjoy ‘hearty’ laughter more frequently. Jest for the health of it.

Dr Peter Spitzer, Medical Director

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