Laughter is healthy, they say. But does laughter really benefit the body and mind? What happens in our bodies when we laugh? And what is scientifically known about the effects of laughter on human health? What is gelotology concerned with? What is the purpose of therapeutic laughter? And what does humor therapy or laughter therapy entail?

Gelotology or the science of laughter

William F. Fry, a researcher at Stanford University, is one of the founders of gelotology (the science of laughter). In the early 1960s he conducted experiments on himself. For example, he took blood samples from himself while watching laugh-out-loud films such as Laurel and Hardy and had these samples examined. For example, he discovered that laughter increases the activity of certain cells of the immune system that clear away germs. The term gelotology was coined by William F. Fry. Today, gelotology is a recognized field of expertise.

The beneficial effect of laughter on your body and mind

Laughter has a number of positive effects on the human body: it counteracts stress, has a relaxing effect, and is beneficial for the blood circulation and the immune system. Laughter increases your general sense of well-being. But there is no indication that laughter therapy can cure diseases. Laughter has been shown to be helpful in pain relief. In this context, also read Norman Cousins’ story about laughing away pain.According to Rod Martin, psychologist and laughter researcher at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, laughter is beneficial for improving your mental performance because laughing makes your heart rate faster and therefore more oxygen becomes available to your brain . People who can laugh at their own foibles and blunders, rather than get annoyed by them, can often solve their problems more easily.

What happens when we laugh?

When we laugh, the following physiological changes occur:The pituitary gland secretes its own opiates; these relieve pain. There is also a greater production of immune cells. Furthermore, the level of the hormone cortisol drops drastically. This is good news for those who suffer from long-term stress and therefore have chronically high cortisol levels, as cortisol suppresses the immune system. There is also an increase in antibodies in the blood and saliva.

Laughter and pain relief

Laughter relieves the pain. This was already known in the thirteenth century. At that time, some surgeons already used a kind of laughter therapy as pain relief during operations.It has been proven that laughter can lead to a higher pain threshold. Laughter causes a short-term change in some neurotransmitters such as endorphins that play a role in pain control.

Can laughter have unpleasant side effects?

Laughter can have harmful consequences if humor is used to avoid speaking about difficult or sensitive topics. Furthermore, laughing can be physically painful with certain conditions or shortly after certain operations. For example, laughing when you have bruised ribs is certainly no fun.

Laugh or chuckle to remember lesson material better

You remember better information that is presented to you in a funny way. Teachers can liven up the lesson material with a comic anecdote. In a relaxed atmosphere, children appear to process and remember the lesson material better.According to Marquette University psychologist Kristy A. Nielson, even chuckling may help improve memory. As part of a study, she read out an overview of thirty words and then showed a number of participants a funny video clip. A week later, the participants who had been shown the video clip after hearing it read aloud appeared to have remembered twenty percent more words than the other participants.

Does a broad smile also have a beneficial effect?

To improve your thinking skills, you don’t necessarily have to laugh out loud. A (silent, but) visible grin or broad smile also has a positive effect. By grinning or smiling broadly, you use facial muscles that trigger positive emotional signals in your brain. If you manage to smile, you often end up in a better mood this way.

What is therapeutic laughter?

Therapeutic laughter is a serious matter, so it is certainly not something to laugh about. The purpose of therapeutic laughter is to relieve physical or emotional pain or stress through the use of humor. Laughter therapy (also called humor therapy) is intended to complement other methods of promoting health and better coping with illness. Making people laugh also appears to improve their performance in learning situations.Some people successfully use a kind of self-therapy in the area of laughter. Please keep in mind that laughter therapy is not an alternative to medical treatment for any disease . Laughter therapy can support regular treatment of a condition and relieve certain symptoms.

Humor and laughter therapy

This uses funny films and books or stories. Consider material specially composed for the humorous effect, such as a funny film or comedy or an amusing book. Or humorous games or puzzles. With the help of this material, among other things, the therapist tries to establish therapeutic contact with a patient or a group of patients.The term laughter therapy is also used for laughter meditation, but that is something fundamentally different. Laughter meditation involves consciously laughing for no reason. In real laughter or humor therapy, a therapist strives to increase the quality of life of people in a difficult situation using, for example, humorous stories, funny games or even jokes that connect with the patients’ experiences. In Australia, for example, aSMILE study was conducted over three years among 36 nursing homes and 400 residents into the so-called Play-Up program in Sydney. The doctor Jean-Paul Bell, who previously worked as a kind of clinic clown with sick children, now did something similar with people with dementia. Dressed in a bright blue jacket with copper buttons and epaulettes, he tried to make the older people laugh with games, jokes and songs (accompanied by himself on the ukulele).The SMILE study, the results of which were announced in 2011, showed that patients with dementia who participated in this study became more satisfied and suffered 20% less from agitation. This 20% may not seem like much, but according to lead researcher Lee-Fay Low of the University of New South Wales School of Psychiatry, this is the same effect as if these people were taking antipsychotics. Laughter or humor therapy is therefore a serious matter.

The work of the Cliniclowns

In the Netherlands we have the Cliniclowns, among others. These are specially trained people who, with their clowning, bring a smile to the face of children with an illness or physical or mental disability or make them laugh. They also act for children in other difficult situations. These clowns are active in hospitals or rehabilitation centers, for example, but also in family replacement homes and sometimes also in schools. The clinic clowns make contact with the children and want to offer them fun through distraction and play and thus increase their quality of life.

Laughter meditation and laughter yoga

In addition to laughter therapy, there is also laughter meditation and laughter yoga. These are special forms of meditation and yoga in which laughter plays a role. They are sometimes applied in the alternative (i.e. complementary) sector.

Self-therapy with laughter and smiles

Train yourself to recognize humor in everyday situations. This ability to see the humor in your life can help you better cope with, for example, the discomforts of a chronic illness. According to some sources, if you are not feeling well and there is nothing funny around you, the best thing to do is to laugh or smile broadly into a mirror. With a bit of luck, this will improve your mood and you will manage to put some more distance between you and your problems. There are also courses and workshops in which you can learn to laugh at and at yourself.

read more

• Relieving pain through laughter: Norman Cousins
• Use of humor in psychotherapy