Laughter is commonly referred to as the best medicine. Humor helps improve a person’s sense of well-being by relieving stress and pain hence has been used to help people with chronic illnesses such as cancer. It includes clowns, games, laughter exercises, puzzles, and comedy movies. Laughter is a very powerful way to tap positive emotions hence has been used and researched extensively by researchers in medicine, literature, sociology, art, and psychology. Research further explains the benefits of humor beyond aiding in health, including reducing stress for employees and students, boosting self-esteem and feelings of camaraderie, and various benefits in the classroom and board rooms. Moreover, there are benefits in conveying messages, as those who convey messages through humor have a better chance of being favorably perceived. Laughter may offer various short-term and long-term benefits. Short benefits include soothing tension, activating and relieving your stress response, and stimulating various organs. Long-term effect of laughter therapy includes improved mood, increased personal satisfaction, relief of pain, and improved immune system. This paper will discuss humor therapy; it uses how it is applied in hospitals and its advantages. Moreover, we will review articles on humor therapy and how it improves the quality of life.
Humor therapy can be defined as a complementary type of medicine that promotes well-being and health by stimulating a pleasant acceptance, appreciation, and acceptance of the incompatibilities of life. The hospital environment commonly resembles confinement, uncertainty, dread, loss of hope, fear, and sadness, yet this is where most patients seek to get better and help cope with their natural illnesses. The images are commonly sad, gloomy, lifeless, and bleak, which may encourage a loss of hope. This makes things so difficult, almost impossible, and challenging hence the need for healthcare to cooperate with laughter while providing care to the patients to improve their overall well-being. This requires a proper patient-physician relationship to create a more interactive atmosphere while providing care. However, this environment is not commonly established and may leave the patients wondering if they have received the best care or are ready to be discharged. Therefore, healthcare providers should assess their patients to see if laughter therapy will be important and beneficial if cooperated with their management.
Various research has shown the benefits of humor therapy on different populations. (Yusnaeni et al.., 2019) In this study to determine the effect of humor on chronic pain, the research showed that humor therapy is efficient in reducing chronic pain among older people, adults, and children by increasing the quality of life and endurance. Patients respond differently to chronic pain, which may be expressed as crying, grimacing, and shouting. This affects the patient and their families, lowering their quality of life. Psychological interventions to manage pain have been shown to aid in pain relief, including group support, prayer, hypnosis, and humor. Humor therapy as a nursing intervention has been shown to impact well-being and health in various ways, including improving the immune system, psychological well-being, and decreasing pain (Yusnaeni et al.., 97-101.).
Humor therapy has widely been used in various complementary medicine practices such as the Unani to treat diseases, improve health, and prevent illness in various social aspects, including spiritually, cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically. The pathophysiology of humor therapy and how it relieves pain is that humor stimulates the release of endogenous opiates. Fast pain fibers that are, the delta fibers, are inhibited by these endogenous opiates; hence the pain transmission from the nociceptors are disconnected and not perceived in the gyrus postcentral. This only causes paint transmission of pain via the slow transmitting C fibers, slowing the body’s response to pain (Yusnaeni et al.., 97-101.). However, some studies argue that humor therapy is only temporary as it allows patients to forget their anxiety and pain.
Moreover, laughter affects mental and physical health through other methods, such as activating the endorphin and cortisol hormones (Elif et al.., 251-269). This hormone has various physiological effects, such as lowering blood pressure; laughter benefits hypertensive patients. This can be coordinated with the common knowledge that stress is one of the risk factors for hypertension, and hence reducing stress through humor lowers blood pressure. Moreover, laughter increases sleep quality in those over 65 years, improves physical function, and reduces pain. There is limited evidence in reducing blood sugar levels, but for those above 65 years, laughter has been shown to lower blood sugar levels. (Elif et al.., 251-269)Moreover, the effect on the mental health of those above 65 years includes reduced perceived stress, depression, and loneliness. It improves mood and hence improves mental function and well-being.
Laughter therapy is needed for the management of patients within all age groups. (Calheiros-Cruz, Teresa Isabel et al.) In a study on pediatrics in hospitals, two findings were identified: when these children interact with friends and family involving humor therapy, their anxiety and stress levels decrease. (Calheiros-Cruz, Teresa Isabel et al.) Secondly, in an observation after the discharge of the children, the children told stories and spoke of funny nurses and doctors who spent time telling jokes. This helps to forget the traumatic and invasive surgeries they underwent in the hospital; hence the memories are relayed with smiles and happiness. Humor makes a situation more manageable by allowing one to feel in control of a particular situation, improving the quality of doing. Humor has also been adopted as a preventive medicine for developing chronic illnesses. When caregivers use humor therapy, it influences and improves the patient’s well-being, and the healthcare provider as caregivers are at high risk of developing diseases. This helps enhance their work and provide safe and effective treatment and quality patient care. This helps reduce burnout among healthcare providers.
Laughter, as shown in the discussed article, has various benefits that improve the quality of life and maybe physiological and other specific effect on the illness. Laughter has various physiological changes, such as increased oxygen consumption and the respiratory and heart rate for a short period, then one moves into a state of relaxation. It improves muscle tone; it increases cardiac output and stroke volume, affecting heart function. It moreover revs up the respiratory system but does increase blood pressure, it increases serum immunoglobulin A, E, and natural killer cells, and it activates the reward system that is the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system in the brain. On specific illnesses, it causes various effects, including pain tolerance, improvement of cognitive functions, reduced stress and anxiety, and reduced agitation. It lowers the risk of heart attack, causes fewer episodes of recurrent MIS and arrhythmia, and in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it causes reduced hyperinflation.
No risks are associated with using humor therapy; hence humor therapy is completely safe. Moreover, other benefits that make it widely accepted are that it is readily available and inexpensive; hence there is no reason not to practice humor therapy. Any efforts by healthcare providers should be appreciated and incompleted into care, even if they are unaware of the benefits of humor therapy. There are various ways we can enhance humor in our patients. One mentions that fun, humor, and laughter are helpful in different situations; hence your patient is more likely to pay attention. Moreover, other than recommending, healthcare providers should try to bring it into daily practice. Some healthcare facilities have been shown to offer laugh mobiles, some have created clown care units, while others encourage their patients to participate in laughter yoga.
In conclusion, laughter therapy has shown various benefits in the healthcare sector by improving physical, psychological, social, and mental well-being. This has been widely accepted, and humor has been recognized as one of the nursing interventions according to the Nursing Interventions Classification. Research has shown that laughter has a positive effect on improving physical functions, reducing pain, improving sleep quality, reducing depression, having a positive effect on different health conditions, and reducing anxiety and strength. Other effects have but required further research, including effects on blood hormone levels and the lowering of blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels. Laughter is a powerful communication tool for healthcare workers dealing with mental health patients. Humor therapy has an important role in health care as a simple, non-pharmacological, inexpensive therapeutic method recommended for managing different patients. Moreover, laughter therapy is a risk-free intervention that greatly influences the quality of life that we live and should be employed in the healthcare sector and our daily lives.
Work Cited
Yusnaeni, Yusnaeni, Kadek Ayu Erika, and Rini Rachmawaty. “Effect of humor therapy on chronic pain: a literature review.” Journal Of Nursing Practice 2.2 (2019): 97-101. https://thejnp.org/index.php/jnp/article/view/51
Elif, Ü. N. E. R., Ayşe SEZER BALCI, and Hasibe KADIOĞLU. “The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Physical and Mental Health: Systematic Review.” Halk Sağlığı Hemşireliği Dergisi 4.3: 251-269. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/jphn/issue/73789/1102843
Calheiros-Cruz, Teresa Isabel, et al. “The need for laughter therapy in pediatrics.” (2018).https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-need-for-laughter-therapy-in-pediatrics-Calheiros-Cruz-Fern%C3%A1ndez-Requejo/e0786c8985b72bf81c593158f0a4b0c77dd521ab
write