Health and Neuroscience
Re-Wire the Brain with Laughter Therapy for Joy and Health
Here’s how a laughter therapist could reduce anxiety and chronic stress for people suffering from mental health conditions.
Endorphins, the neurochemicals produced within the central nervous system, play a remarkable role in our well-being. They interact with opiate receptors in the brain, effectively reducing pain while enhancing feelings of pleasure.
Moreover, the act of laughter has the potential to influence the activity of dopamine and serotonin in our brains, further contributing to our overall mood and happiness.
I am inspired to write this piece after reading a meta-analysis titled The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Anxiety published on Holistic Nursing Practice (HNP) recently in the Science of Health and Healing, a peer-reviewed bimonthly journal that explores holistic models of nursing practice.
This meta-analysis was conducted to determine the effect of laughter therapy on anxiety. The study reviewed randomized controlled clinical trials on Google Scholar, PubMed, and ISI Web of Sciences databases.
The study concludes that “Laughter therapy is an effective complementary method to decrease anxiety.”
I’ve been interested in laughter therapy since the mid-1990s when I studied the cognitive effects of laughter on the brain.
During my ethnographic case studies, I found that deliberately initiated laughs and smiles during knowledge acquisition and the skill-building process could increase endorphins and contribute to cognition in the learning process. But there is more to laughter than mere cognition.
In this post, I want to briefly introduce laughter therapy leveraging ten scientific studies and how laughter therapy can rewire the brain and help us heal from mental and physical conditions by reducing stress and anxiety.
I also provide a few valuable resources to get you started in this natural healing process.
Laughter Therapy in Scientific Studies
This section provides ten interesting and representative studies for various conditions, age groups, and genders. The research is active, and it is not possible to cover all in a single article. However, most studies confirm the benefits of laughter therapy for patients.
From a historical perspective, as pointed out in this study in the mid-1990s, “there was much anecdotal evidence from nurses and patients to support humor and laughter as therapy.
However, there was little research to support specific humor or laughter interventions as beneficial in the short or long term in the clinical environment. Humour and laughter remain potentially exciting and innovative tools for nursing therapy.”
However, research into laughter started in the early 2000s. For example, one of the outstanding contributors to laughter therapy has been Dr Lee S. Berk, a pioneering medical researcher studying the “neuroendocrine and immune effects of positive emotions”.
Dr Berk is an associate research professor of Pathology and Human Anatomy at the School of Medicine at Loma Linda University in California. You can watch Dr Berk’s studies in this CNN interview.
1 — Dr Berk’s outstanding paper titled “The anticipation of a laughter eustress event modulates mood states prior to the actual humor experience” was published in the Society of Neuroscience Abstracts in 2001. From my memories, this study showed the increase of immune cells by laughter therapy. Unfortunately, the paper is not available online, but it inspired several researchers to study the effects of mindful laughter on stress and anxiety.
2 — This paper titled “Effects of laughter therapy on depression, cognition and sleep among the community-dwelling elderly” concluded that “laughter therapy is considered to be a useful, cost-effective and easily accessible intervention that has positive effects on depression, insomnia, and sleep quality in the elderly.”
3 — Another paper titled “Laughter Therapy for Patients with Cancer” informs that “Laughter eases the mind, defuses tension among people, and has positive physiologic effects on patients. Facilitated nursing intervention with humor helps to inject this important facet of life into difficult scenes. One successful approach to introducing humor into a hospital setting is a hall-roving “Laugh Mobile.” Its humorous novelties, books, and films help divert the attention of suffering patients to lighter thoughts.”
4 — This theoretical review titled “Therapeutic Benefits of Laughter in Mental Health” informs that “depression is a disease, where neurotransmitters in the brain, such as norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin, are reduced, and there is something wrong in the mood control circuit of the brain. Laughter can alter dopamine and serotonin activity. Furthermore, endorphins secreted by laughter can help when people are uncomfortable or in a depressed mood. Laughter therapy is a non-invasive and non-pharmacological alternative treatment for stress and depression, representative cases that negatively influence mental health. In conclusion, laughter therapy is effective and scientifically supported as a single or adjuvant therapy.”
5 — This paper reviewed the evidence related to laughter and humor therapy as a medical therapy relevant to the dialysis patient population. “Studies from other groups such as children, the elderly, and persons with mental health, cancer, and other chronic conditions are included to inform potential applications of laughter therapy to the dialysis population. In addition, the effect of laughter and humor on depression, anxiety, pain, immunity, fatigue, sleep quality, respiratory function, and blood glucose may have applications to the dialysis context and require further research.”
6 — This study titled “Effects of Laughter Therapy on Depression, Quality of Life, Resilience and Immune Responses in Breast Cancer Survivors” concluded that “the results showed that laughter therapy was effective in increasing the quality of life and resilience in breast cancer survivors. but depression and immune responses did not differ significantly between the groups.”
7 — A similar study titled “The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Patients with Breast Cancer Undergoing Radiotherapy” provided a conclusive remark pointing to “evidence that laughter therapy is an effective intervention in improving depression and anxiety, and stress in breast cancer patients.”
8 — This randomized controlled trial, “Effects of laughter therapy on quality of life in patients with cancer”, conducted at a single institution in Japan, concluded that “Laughter therapy may represent a beneficial, noninvasive complementary intervention in the clinical setting.”
9 — This nonrandomised pilot study, “The preliminary effects of laughter therapy on loneliness and death anxiety among older adults living in nursing homes”, points out that “anxiety regarding death and loneliness are important issues that affect the quality of life in older adults. This first pilot study demonstrates the beneficial effects of laughter therapy on loneliness and death anxiety in nursing home residents. As a result, nurses can incorporate laughter therapy into routine programmes in nursing homes.”
10 — This study examined the impact of laughter therapy on serotonin levels, quality of life and depression in middle-aged women. The conclusion was, “Results indicate that serotonin activation through laughter therapy can help middle-aged women by lessening depression and providing important grounds for depression control.”
How Laughter Therapy Works
According to this paper, Simulated Laughter Techniques for Therapeutic Use in Mental Health, “therapeutic laughter can be used in mental health with preventive intent or complementary approach to other established therapeutic strategies, and can be lumped into the following three groups: 1. Spontaneous laughter 2. Simulated laughter 3. Stimulated laughter
The paper provides the following five fundamentals for simulated therapeutic laughter:
“1 — Laughter experience is based on well-defined methods, which results in less clinical practice variability, as compared to other laughter interventions.
2 — Safe, easy to practice and share.
3 — No thinking is required; it fosters joy.
4 — It is contagious and can easily be converted into spontaneous laughter when experienced in a group.
5 — It allows full therapeutic laughter experience at proper duration and intensity.”
Sample Laughter Therapy
As pointed in this resource, there are various types of laughter such as hearty, imitation, embarrassing, dyslexic, silent, nasal, celebrating, silly, and swinging laughter.
In addition to scientific studies from many articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos, I understand that the brain cannot distinguish between fake and natural laughter. This cognitive construct looks promising for the use of laughter in therapy.
There are hundreds of videos, but I want to share only a few samples from my collections on YouTube that you may enjoy. These videos can inspire you and get started in this unusual yet effective therapeutic process.
This TED talk by Liliana De Leo, the founder of Living Laughter™, inspires people to include laughter yoga in their personal and professional lives. So let’s learn some tips from this laughter teacher.
I have been following Dr Madan Kataria for many years. He convinced me about the benefits of laughter therapy. I always find him amusing and inspiring.
Who wouldn’t laugh for ants in pants?
Another inspiring evangelist of laughter yoga, and therapy is Amelia Meyer. She explores the psychological and physiological benefits of Laughter Yoga, especially for the young generation.
Here is another hilarious video depicting how laughter could be initiated in group settings.
If you want something more sophisticated, you may enjoy the analysis of Professor Sophie Scott. She focuses on her research in neuroscience to explain why laughter is an essential social skill that deserves to be taken seriously.
Conclusions and Takeaways
Laughter plays a vital role in wiring the brain for optimism, joy, and happiness by changing the neurochemicals in the brain.
When we laugh, the brain releases endorphins via the pituitary gland. And more importantly, laughter may boost neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, acetylcholine, GABA, and norepinephrine.
Endorphins are like opioids. They relieve stress, anxiety, and pain. In addition, endorphins can help us feel euphoria which is an altered state of mind. When the brain experiences such an altered state, many physiological and cognitive changes occur.
Laughter therapy is real and valuable. It is not hype. Scientific studies indicate that we could reduce stress and anxiety by using this therapy, increase joy and happiness, and thus address our mental problems.
So, if we can deliberately turn laughter into a lifestyle habit, we can rewire our brains for happiness, joy, and optimism.
By the way, from my experience, artificial intelligence (AI) can also make us laugh sometimes.
Rewiring my brain using various lifestyle methods is a passion for me.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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