Laughter Therapy: How Humor Can Be a Powerful Medicine for Chronic Illness

Living with a chronic illness is no joke. For many, the day-in, day-out struggle of trying to cope with a chronic condition can be exhausting, frustrating, and even overwhelming.

Treatment can help mitigate most conditions, allowing patients to take back some of the power from their illness. A wide variety of books have also been written about living with chronic illnesses, aiming both to inspire and provide a host of practical tools for sufferers.

However, you might be surprised to find that a very powerful coping skill is already within your reach; in fact, you may even use it every day! There’s no denying the well-documented, often surprisingly impactful value of laughter for physical and mental health.

Some days, you have all the tools at your disposal to live a healthy lifestyle but still need help to part the clouds cast by your chronic illness. We’ll briefly outline the documented impacts of stress on health, explain why laughter is an effective remedy, and explore how laughter can positively impact chronic health conditions.

The impact of stress on health

Living with a chronic health condition can be stressful – and while long-term sufferers may be somewhat used to the feeling’s presence, they may not be aware of how it otherwise affects them. Stress causes a negative feedback loop with chronic illnesses, compounding already painful conditions by causing others. Both long-term and short-term stress have well-documented detrimental effects on physical and mental health; and without some kind of coping skill in place to relieve pressure, it’s likely its impact will worsen over time.

Stress can result in a wide variety of symptoms, such as:

• Headaches: Stress increases blood pressure and muscle tension, causing this all-too-common symptom to recur for frequent worriers.
• Weight gain: Cortisol, the hormone released when we’re under stress, stimulates your appetite, in turn causing you to eat more.
• Adverse effects on the immune system: Long-term stress can weaken the immune system, making it harder to recover from illness and easier to fall ill in the first place.
• Poor mental health: Stress adds to the mental burden caused by conditions like anxiety and depression, exacerbating their impact on daily life.
• Cardiovascular disease: Stress raises blood pressure, and if it persists long-term, it can damage arteries and eventually affect your entire cardiovascular system.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the potential impacts of long-term stress; yet, it’s enough to illustrate how dangerous sustained stress can be. Common unhealthy coping skills, such as drinking alcohol, can compound these effects by inflicting conditions that affect different parts of your body. While it may seem as though these unhealthy coping skills lift the burden of anxiety for a moment, healthy coping skills can accomplish the same effect – without any of the potentially life-altering consequences.

Why does laughter work?

Research shows us that laughing has a positive impact on physical health, as it stimulates circulation throughout the body and causes tense muscles to relax. As laughter relieves physical tension, it has an equally significant impact on mental health, providing marked benefits to patients suffering from illnesses like anxiety and depression.

More to the point, laughter has been well-documented to help mitigate the symptoms of patients who are chronically ill. While by no means a cure-all or a substitute for proper treatment, the changes laughter brings are notable, and it has been noted to help patients suffering from:

• Diabetes: Laughter therapy has been known to delay cardiovascular complications, and laughing has been connected to lowering glucose levels.
• Mental illness: In addition to lowering stress overall, laughing is connected with improved mood and self-esteem, as well as reduced agitation.
• COPD and rheumatoid arthritis: Despite being two very different conditions, laughing was shown to reduce inflammation in people with both diseases.
• Parkinson’s disease: While reported improvements were subjective, patients noticed positive changes after undergoing comedic improv training.
• Arrhythmia: Typical complications of cardiac rehabilitation (like arrhythmia and MIs) tend to become less likely if patients are more likely to laugh often.

For chronically ill patients, laughter won’t resolve their day-to-day struggles; however, it will empower them to adopt a positive outlook, and possibly impact some of their symptoms over time. Taking the time to watch a stand-up special, read a lighthearted novel, or even take a night out with friends to enjoy good company may not seem medicinal, but allowing yourself to be immersed in the moment and truly laugh is remarkably freeing.

Have you laughed today?

It’s a simple question that sounds trite; yet, the question is a brilliant way to make sure you’re taking care of yourself. Taking time to rest, relax, and laugh while doing something you enjoy is a healthy coping skill; one that you don’t need to read a library of books or consult an expert to employ.

If you are suffering from a chronic illness and you find yourself weighed down, take a moment, breathe, and consider: how can I make myself laugh today? You might just find that your burdens feel a little lighter.