Written by Lauren Young and Edited by Ashima Seth
Imagine yourself in a room with a group of people. Now try to make eye contact with others and gradually build up from a smile to a gentle chuckle to a cheerful laugh. As you hear the contagious laughter of the other person, you begin to laugh yourself and loosen up. Your mood has been slightly elevated, while you become more relaxed. You have just experienced one of the many exercises a laughter yoga instructor may direct the group to do.
The benefits of laughter were first introduced in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria in his health journal Laughter: The Best Medicine. Dr. Kataria discovered the physical and mental benefits of laughter on both the body and mind. Laughter yoga consequently emerged from this concept. It is used as a form of exercise focused on promoting interpersonal skills, cultivating positivity, and strengthening immunity. Further, scientific studies have been performed to test the effectiveness of laughter yoga with their focus groups primarily being those with physical diseases, mental health disorders, and the elderly.
One study focused on the effects of laughter yoga in patients with kidney disease. During hemodialysis, purification of the blood via a dialysis machine, laughter yoga was a beneficial, low-intensity form of intradialytic physical activity that improved overall happiness, mood and optimism. Despite this, no significant change was observed on lung function or blood pressure due to the small sample size of the study [1]. However, another study focused on patients with Aphasia, which is caused by brain damage and diminishes the person’s ability to understand and communicate. The findings of this study showed that use of laughter when interacting with patients suffering from Aphasia assisted with equalizing interactional power between patients and caretakers, as well as supporting narrative production and demonstrating affiliation between topics for patients suffering from Aphasia [2].
The second focus group that scientific studies on laughter yoga have focused on are those experiencing symptoms of depression and stress. Both stimulated and spontaneous laughter have been shown to decrease cortisol levels of people experiencing stress or depression [3]. Cortisol is a stress response hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, and consistently high levels of cortisol can decrease immunity, sustain high blood pressure, and lower one’s mood. Thus, group-based laughter yoga served to be a feasible treatment and method in improving depression and stress management.
Elderly people tend to experience anxiety regarding death, loneliness, and other physical diseases associated with age. When programming laughter therapy into the routine of nursing homes, there was a significant decrease in emotional and social loneliness [4]. In addition, blood pressure and heart rate were positively affected, thus indicating an improvement in their physical and mental health as a result of laughter therapy [5].
Even though laughter yoga has been shown to be beneficial in the three focus groups, its benefits should not be limited. Laughter yoga is a practice that is practiced more in palliative care settings, such as hospice care and elder homes; however, its introduction in the lives of the younger generation can also advantageously serve as an outlet for students. Laughter yoga can potentially be a novel form of universal communication that improves the body and the mind.
References:
- Bennet, P.N., Parsons, T., Ben-Moshe, R., Neal, M., et al. (2015). “Intradialytic Laughter Yoga therapy for haemodialysis patients: a pre-post intervention feasibility study.” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 15: 176.
- Archer, B., Azios, J.H., and Moody, S. (2019). “Humour in clinical-educational interactions between graduate student clinicians and people with aphasia.” International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 00: 1-16.
- Fujisawa, A., Ota, A., Matsunaga, M., Li, Y., et al. (2018). “Effect of laughter yoga on salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone among healthy university students: A randomized control.” Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practices, 31: 6-11.
- Yoshikawa, Y., Ohmaki, E., Kawahata, H., Maekawa, Y., et al. (2018). “Beneficial effect of laughter therapy on physiological and psychological function in elders.” Nursing Open, 1: 93-99.
- Kuru, A.N, Zorba Bahceli, P., and Emigrolu, O.N. (2018). “The preliminary effects of laughter therapy on loneliness and death anxiety among older adults living in nursing homes: A nonrandomised pilot study.” International Journal of Older People Nursing, 13: e12206.