The Science Of Laughter As Medicine

What If Feeling Better Is As Simple As Laughing More?


laughter for stress

Laugh until your face hurts, then call me in the morning. That's the kind of health advice Lee Berk, 71, of Loma Linda University, can get behind. As one of the country's leading laughter researchers, he's measured grins, put high-tech headbands on study participants, and found that a good guffaw can measurably cut stress-hormone levels, boost immunity, and produce the same feel-good gamma brain waves as intense meditation. We spoke to Berk about his novel approach to medicine. 

Prevention: How did you end up with the (very cool) job of being a laughter researcher?  
Berk: Well, I sort of came in the back door. In the early 1980s, I was first interested in the idea of using exercise to positively affect the immune system. We put people on treadmills, looked at their cortisol levels, looked at their endorphin levels, and found that exercise positively influenced both—they produced more endorphins, and had lower cortisol levels. So I thought, hmm, if exercise can do that, there have to be other behaviors that do, too. Then I started to think of old sayings and words of wisdom: "A merry heart does good like medicine," or "laughter is the best medicine." There had to be something to these, right? So I decided we should test them out. 

That’s when I got in touch with Bill Frey, a researcher at Stanford, and things just sort of fell into place. Soon after, I got a call from Norman Cousins—the well known journalist and author who had basically self-treated himself with humor to treat his heart disease—and he offered me some money to study the health benefits of happiness and laughter. 

How exactly is laughter like meditation?
We found that joyful laughter immediately produces the same brain wave frequencies experienced by people in a true meditative state. We did this by attaching a headband-like device to people as they watched funny, distressful, or spiritual videos. During the funny videos, some of which were I Love Lucy episodes, gamma waves were produced—the same ones achieved during a meditation session. The spiritual videos produced more alpha waves, which are associated with rest; and the distressful videos produced flat waves, similar to those experienced by people who feel detached.

What makes these gamma brain waves so great?
Gamma is the only frequency that affects every part of the brain. So when you're laughing, you're essentially engaging your entire brain at once. This state of your entire brain being "in sync" is associated with contentment, being able to think more clearly, and improved focus. You know, that feeling of being "in the zone." And the more you laugh, the more you should notice these perks. It's similar to the way regular exercise reconditions and reprograms your body over time. With regular laughter, you're optimizing your brain's response to this experience.

How do you want your research to change the current medical system?
We're still stuck in the biomedical model of "you're well until you're sick, and when you're sick, we're going to treat you with a pill." But 75 to 80% of all visits to primary care doctors today are related to stress-related disease, and there are definitely ways to counteract stress—laughter being one of them. It really needs to be brought into the equation when we educate patients on how to live healthier. (Try these 2-minute stress solutions to calm down quick.)

So should doctors prescribe laughter to patients?
As part of a gamut of healthy lifestyle changes—absolutely. There's just no denying its healing properties. Laughter works as an antidepressant because you have endorphins, you have dopamine, and you have serotonin going; it helps dissipate cardiovascular disease risk; and it's very efficient in reducing inflammatory response. 

What should the average person take away from your research?
I truly believe that people should seek out happiness and laughter the same way they seek out healthy foods to eat, or the same way they schedule time to go to the gym. And the best part: Unlike food and exercise, you can't O.D. on laughter—at least I haven't seen it!

MORE: The 25 Happiest Cities In America

Published July 2014, Prevention
Recommended For You
recommended by Zergnet