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= Laughter Therapy for Cancer Patients = Laughter therapy for cancer patients is beneficial because it uses laughter to stimulate the body to boost the immune system. This article will include how laughter therapy first came into fruition, the impact that laughter has on cancer patients, and how laughter is able to cause this impact.

History
The first known research done on laughter therapy was in the late 1970s by Dr. Lee Berk. The first experiment to show that laughter can improve treatment was done on ten people. Five people were shown a comedy before their treatment and five people were not ( the control group). After treatment their blood samples were taken. The experiment revealed that cortisol, known as the “fight or flight” hormone, decreased faster and the amount of natural killer cells increased much more significantly in the group that watched the comedy first. The first person to make laughter therapy mainstream was Dr. Madan Kataria, who opened a laughter club in 1995. Today, only 25 years later after the first one opened, there are over 5,000 laughter clubs.

Effects of Laughter in Cancer Patients
Laughter therapy results in boosted oxygen levels, muscle tone, and improved cardiovascular functions. Hospitals use this method as a part of cancer immunotherapy treatment. Doctors refer to laughter as booster shots. Many cancer patients say that laughter clubs and yoga laughter centers help them to unite and smile to fight the disease together. They find this method encouraging and many have said that it helps to reduce over all pain and increase quality of life. After therapeutic laughter, studies show that people feel better, lighter, more relaxed, and have a clearer mind. Laughter with cancer patients have been shown to improve treatment and ability to combat the cancer cells. Laughter therapy has been proven to increase the quality of life of cancer patients by 90%.

Change in Mental State
Many cancer patients, approximately 15%-25%, experience depression. Depression is a serious illness that causes hopelessness, and can lead to a low quality of life. Depression and laughter are correlated in a way that depression effects the type of humor a person has. Majority of people diagnosed with depression uses self-defeating humor. Studies show that when people are surrounded by others who have a different humor than themselves they adapt to their surroundings, meaning that their humor style slowly changes to relate to the people around them. Laughter therapy serves as a benefit to those with depression because it helps to change their outlook on life; it can change self-defeating humor into self-enhancing humor.

How it Works
Laughter is able to increase the release of endorphins by the brain, stimulate the lungs, muscles, and heart by enhancing the oxygen-rich air intake done by the body. Laughter provides a relaxed feeling by activating and relieving the body’s stress response. By increasing and then decreasing the stress response, the body is able to help control blood pressure and heart rate. Laughter is also used to soothe tension by stimulating circulation, which results in more relaxed muscles. Those are just some short-term effects. Long -term effects lead to an overall improvement in the quality of life. When the body is manifested by negative thoughts, the body responds with chemical reactions that bring more stress into the body’s system resulting in an immune decrease, making people more susceptible to illness. Laughter therapy does the opposite, it works to release neuropeptides, which combats stress and increases the immune system’s response, resulting in the body being able to fight illness more readily. Many cancer patients have said that laughter makes it easier for people to connect. Overall, laughter produces natural painkillers, and increases health both physically and mentally.

See also:
Laughter yoga

Laughter

Gelotology