We've all heard something similar to this quote, but is it true? Is laughter cheap medicine? How does it affect our bodies and can it enhance overall health? Do people who laugh more live healthier lives? These are a few questions that we are going to try to answer.
Our expectation is that laughter, as a part of an overall positive demeanor, is beneficial to the health and well being of a person. Qualitative data would seem to suggest that a patient with a positive outlook (to include lots of laughing) would feel better, but are they truly better? Does their positivity and laughter act merely as a sort of placebo effect, their brains tricking them into believing that their circumstances are better than the reality? Or, are there actual physical manifestations of the healing process?
If these manifestations do exist, what are they? We hypothesize that laughter could act as a medicine simply because people feel happier. A person's morale improves which in turn could improve their health. If peer-reviewed studies did, in fact, show laughter to be beneficial, we would not expect it to be disease specific. That is to say that an individual suffering from leukemia would not receive greater aid than a patient with epilepsy.
In regards to overall health and well being, we believe that laughter could increase the lifespan of some and stave off hereditary disease in others. If we can show that laughter has a positive, measurable effect on the body, then health care professionals will be able to think of ways to adapt treatments and supplement preventative medicine.
If these hypotheses are correct then should comedic entertainment be more of a staple in medicine than what it is today? What do you think? Leave your comments below.
If these manifestations do exist, what are they? We hypothesize that laughter could act as a medicine simply because people feel happier. A person's morale improves which in turn could improve their health. If peer-reviewed studies did, in fact, show laughter to be beneficial, we would not expect it to be disease specific. That is to say that an individual suffering from leukemia would not receive greater aid than a patient with epilepsy.
In regards to overall health and well being, we believe that laughter could increase the lifespan of some and stave off hereditary disease in others. If we can show that laughter has a positive, measurable effect on the body, then health care professionals will be able to think of ways to adapt treatments and supplement preventative medicine.
If these hypotheses are correct then should comedic entertainment be more of a staple in medicine than what it is today? What do you think? Leave your comments below.
This is an interesting proposition. But I am curious to see how you would turn laughter and happiness into cold, hard data. Is there already research out there you could pull from? I look forward to seeing how this progresses.
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered whether the effects of endorphins are psychological or physical. Even though there are research results to support the claim that endorphins help reduce pain by acting as neurotransmitters, I'm very much interested in knowing what other bio-active chemicals that laughter brings out in the human body.
ReplyDeleteIf your project finds it true that laughter does improve overall health level, how would you imagine that laughter could be incorporated into a medical treatment? It would be interesting if you could come up with some ideas on adding laugh effects in the treatments.
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