Laughter: A Stress Relief?

:D until your belly hurts!

Laughter is a complicated process.

• The frontal lobe is thought to help you interpret the various bits of information you receive, to then decide if they are funny.
• This process triggers an emotional response in the limbic system, which controls feelings like pleasure and fear, and that in turn stimulates your motor cortex.
• This controls your physical response: the guffaws, snorts, and chuckles we recognize as laughter.
• When you start to laugh, you get a fairly large and fast contraction of the rib cage. Those contractions push air (ha, ha, ha). It’s a very primitive way of making noise. 
• At the brain level, it’s associated with a change in the circulating endorphins

Add some fun to your day with these simple tips:

• Try to remember funny memories: this “recycled” laughter is able to remind you of how laughter can make you feel. It will generally improve your mood for the rest of the day.
• Watch funny videos online.
• Surround yourself with funny people: being around people that have a good sense of humor is the best way to encourage your laughter. We often tend to become friends with people who have a good and positive attitude, and a happy look at things.
• Spend time with little ones: kids have an amazing ability to make us remember the simpler things. Spend time with kids whenever you can to get a dose of simple fun and lots of laughs.
• Remove negative energies from your life as much as you can: sometimes, it’s hard to see laughable moments through all the negativity we get thrown at every day. Take breaks from watching the news or listening to the radio. Unfollow negative people on your social media channels. Find ways to get away from others in nature on occasion.

Enjoy watching the movie Patch Adams (1998) with Robin Williams, based on the true story of a medical student trying to improve hospital patients’ quality of life through humor.

A natural remedy

Laughter is a positive sensation that could make physical, psychological, and social relationships healthy, ultimately improving the quality of life:

Physiological outcomes:

• Reducing the levels of stress hormones.
• Increasing the release of endorphins (the brain’s “feel-good” chemical).
• Strengthening the immune system by boosting the number of T-lymphocytes through. activation of natural killer cells, and multiplying white blood cells in the body and IgA, G, and M.
• Providing cardiovascular benefits by reducing blood pressure and controlling vasoconstriction by lowering the degradation of the vasorelaxant substance, nitric oxide; and reducing cortisol, thus raising blood sugar.

Laughter also has psychological outcomes that improve your quality of life:

• Reducing stress, anxiety, tension, and depression.
• Increasing energy, enabling you to stay focused and accomplish more.
• Bringing people together, improving interpersonal interactions and friendliness, and strengthening relationships.

Recently, there has been increased interest in noninvasive and non-pharmacological therapy.

It would be interesting to know whether laughter can be made into a convenient therapy for patients as it has no side effects, is accessible to everyone, and does not require any equipment. So, considering laughter as a potential therapy to improve the patient’s state physiologically and psychologically could be a good option.

Laughter therapy uses laughter to promote leading a desirable life, by keeping, recovering, and preventing physical, psychological, social, mental, and spiritual functions through spontaneous and nonspontaneous laughter. Therefore, it is effective and scientifically supported as either a single or adjuvant therapy. It may be used to help people cope with a serious disease, such as cancer.

Laughter therapy may also include laughter exercises, clowns, and comedy movies, games, and puzzles. It is a type of complementary therapy.