Therapeutic Humor: Why Some Doctors Are Taking Humor Seriously

chillibreeze writer — Dr Gautam Babu

In 1964, Death looked upon the benign face of Norman Cousins and smiled. Doctors diagnosed the 49 year old journalist with a rare form of crippling arthritis known as Ankylosing Spondilytis and told him that his chances of survival were less than 1 in 500. Death would come slowly and painfully, in a few months, they said, and there was nothing they could do. So Norman Cousins decided to look bravely into death’s gaze…and smile back.

Cousin’s previous research on the biochemistry of human emotions at the UCLA School of Medicine had convinced him that emotions impacted health. He believed that positive emotions were therapeutic and applied his theory immediately to himself. Armed with comedy videos and a positive attitude, this extraordinary man literally laughed his way out of the grave back into health. The story of his amazing recovery is documented in the 1989 bestseller ’Anatomy of an Illness’ and Norman Cousins served the rest of his life as a living testimony to the healing powers of humor.

Medicinal uses of humor
The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH) officially defines therapeutic humor as, “any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situations”. The AATH, founded in 1989, is an international body of doctors that seek to discover and disseminate scientific findings in this field.

According to aath.org, humor, when used appropriately and sensitively, reduces stress and anxiety, increases pain tolerance, elevates mood, increases energy, and exercises respiratory muscles. It also improves personality and group cohesiveness by enhancing communication, creativity, and interpersonal attraction.

These new findings are gradually influencing the way doctors and hospitals treat patients. Stephen Sultanoff PhD, a clinical psychotherapist, is one among a growing breed of doctors who use and recommend humor to supplement therapy. He states that humor helps patients relieve emotional distress and provides them with a tool to manage emotions. The perception of humor in a mentally ill patient is a sign of improvement and can be used to diagnose progress in therapy.

Using humor as supplemental therapy
Reputed hospitals such as the Cancer Treatment Centers of America and Miami Children’s Hospital now offer laughter therapy and ‘clown-doctor’ services for patients. Laughter therapy, which involves participants in groups practicing laughter as an aerobic exercise, has shown to give patients a sense of control over their condition, and improve their response to treatment.

Hospital clown programs, in which professional clowns attend to emotional needs of sick children, are becoming more popular. Pediatric patients report lesser anxiety and a better treatment experience thanks to the red nosed caregivers.

Benefits for everyone
The benefits of hospital humor extend beyond the patients, to doctors and nurses as well. Patty. Wooten RN, a professional nurse and author, conducts a humor workshop called ‘Jest for the Health of It’ for medical professionals. Her research shows that humor, when applied to the hospital workplace, significantly reduces professional stress and emotional burnout amongst the staff. A joke a day keeps illness away, from patients and from doctors too!

How does it work?
Studies indicate that humor and laughter have a holistic effect on health by acting on a person’s cognition, emotions, biochemistry and physiology A good joke is like a ‘train wreck’ of thought, observed Cousins, and can stop negative thought patterns by providing fresh insight and perspective. Researchers Peter and Dana suggested that humor can alleviate physical pain through relaxation, distraction, a new attitude, and hormonal activity.

This has been backed by studies in psychoneuroimmunology which reveal that positive emotions enhance the functions of the body’s neuropeptides and produce measurable changes in cell function. Berk, at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, showed how laughter offsets the immunosuppressive effects of stress, by lowering the level of serum cortisol –a ‘stress hormone’-and stimulating the activity of protective antibody forming cells.

Laughter also exercises respiratory muscles and can benefit patients with lung disease. The evidence is conclusive: laughter is guilty of stealing the body’s illness.

Risks associated with humor therapy
The use of therapeutic humor is not always a risk free situation, however. What one person may find funny another might find offensive. Too much levity can prompt patients to question their doctor's competence, and some people may just not realize that the doctor is trying to be funny. Dr. Sultanoff acknowledges that both doctor and patient must have a certain degree of emotional intelligence for humor to work its magic.

Outside the hospital, healthy people can take action to maintain their health through humor. Laughter clubs and ‘Laughter Yoga’, made popular by the physician Dr.Madan Kataria, are a great way to practice healthy laughter in a group. Dr Sultanoff recommends developing a ‘comic vision’ to life by becoming more receptive to the humor in the world outside and within. Such a practice can make one more resilient, both physically and mentally, he says.

So make time for laughter each day, with a funny movie, book or friend, and stay on the road to health. Remain positive in the face of illness and keep laughing, especially if you don’t feel like it! If your doctors object, then remind them of what the American wit Josh Billings said,
“There ain’t much fun in medicine, but there’s a heck of a lot of medicine in fun”

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in April, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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—About our writer:

Dr. Gautam Babu is doing his M.D. in community medicine from J.N. Medical College, Karnataka. He likes taking readers along on his journeys to the frontiers of epidemiologic research .His forte is making complex medical literature simple, interesting and useful both to the lay reader and a scientific audience, and writes on a variety of health topics when he’s not working on his novel.

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