Laughter as a Modulator of Stress:
How Modulation of Stress Can Benefit Health
The evidence that humor can modulate stress has positive implications for health, because health can be impaired by stress. Stress causes the release of glucocorticoids, which block the production of lymphocytes; lymphocytes produce antibodies, "alarm" the rest of the immune system, and destroy infectious agents, decrease responsiveness of already existing lymphocytes, and even kill lymphocytes (Sapolsky, 1998). In addition, stress plays a role in the development of ulcers. H. pylori bacteria is responsible for ulcers, but not everyone with an ulcer is infected, and not everyone who is infected show symptoms of ulcers; stress can be the defining factor (Sapolsky, 1998). Heart disease is also related to stress. Redford Williams determined that hostility, comprised of cynicism, anger, and aggression, is correlated with coronary disease (qtd. in Sapolsky, 1998). All of these emotions can activate the stress response in any person, and hostile men show an even larger stress response (Sapolsky, 1998).
However, humor can modulate all of these effects to increase health, or at least to avoid negative effects of stress on health, in several ways. Humor can act as a coping mechanism; after stress has been perceived as a threat, humor can be used as one method of dealing with the threat. Additionally, humor is social phenomenon; people tend to laugh with other people. It is possible that people who report laughing more may have more social support. This is another aspect in which humor might affect health, because social support has been shown both to increase immune function and decrease the stress response (Sapolsky, 1998). Finally, humor increases measures for internal locus of control (Wooten, 1996); feeling in control can increase longevity, decrease hypertension in reaction to stressing noise, and can decrease vulnerability to learned helplessness (Sapolsky, 1998). All of this evidence points to ways humor can affect health through mitigating stress.
Alternative Medicine | Laughter
Laughter as a Stress Modulator | Physiologic Effects of Laughter | Applications of Humor in Medicine