Humor can help us deal with difficult situations; laughter can make us feel better. But can they help with disease, as American Norman Cousins (more) believed about his own heart disease? A modest study in Trondheim, Norway, shows there may be something to this idea.
Sven Svebak, Ph.D. (Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and others at St. Olav University Hospital studied forty-one patients with chronic kidney failure and discovered a lower mortality rate after two years among patients with a sense of humor.
Sense of humor, based on a self-report survey, seemed more important for survival than age/gender/education or duration of disease/number of dialyses per week/co-morbidity [additional health problems].
According to the article abstract in The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine (Volume 36, Number 3 / 2006):
A highly significant increase in survival was due to the psychological variables of block three [quality of life and sense of humor] (p < .001) essentially accounted for by sense of humor (p < .005). Those who scored above the median in sense of humor increased their odds for survival by on average 31%. Conclusions: Sense of humor appeared to mediate better coping and, therefore, protected against detrimental effects of disease-related stressors upon survival.
This finding, with a somewhat small sample size of forty-one probably ethnically homogeneous patients, is in line with the notions that stress weakens the immune system and that humor can reduce stress.
Another angle that researchers are taking is the idea that stress reduces blood flow and laughter increases blood flow. A preliminary study by Michael Miller, M.D., and others (all from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore) used violent and comedic movie scenes with twenty patients.
In 2005 Miller reported that “‘average blood flow increased 22 percent during laughter, and decreased 35 percent during mental stress.’” Miller said we still need to exercise regularly, but “’15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system.’”
For most people, laughter can’t hurt and may improve health. You might try some Laughter Yoga, especially for World Laughter Day on May 6, 2007 (first Sunday in May).
See also:
Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (including Dr. Patch Adams, as portrayed by Robin Williams)