How effective is laughter therapy?

* Laughter therapy boosts the interferon levels of the immune system which helps the system's ability to fight illness and escalates healing. Laughter decreases stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and suppress immune activity.

*Muscle Relaxation - Belly laugh results in muscle relaxation. While you laugh, the muscles that do not participate in the belly laugh, relaxes. After you finish laughing those muscles involved in the laughter start to relax.Reduction of Stress

* Hormones - Laughter reduces at least four of neuroendocrine hormones associated with stress response. (epinephrine, cortisol, dopac, and growth hormone).

* Immune System Enhancement - Clinical studies have shown that humour strengthens the immune system.

* Pain Reduction - Humor allows a person to "forget" about pains such as aches, arthritis, etc.

* Cardiac Exercise - Laughter can provide good cardiac conditioning especially for those who are unable to perform physical exercises.

* Blood Pressure - Women seem to benefit more than men in preventing hypertension.

*Respiration - Frequent belly laughter empties your lungs of more air than it takes in resulting in a cleansing effect - similar to deep breathing.

It would have been better if you call it smile, instead of laughter - therepy. If a person make always laugh like a fool it doesn't help anyone. When your mind is clear, free from worries & dipression etc. then only the real smile comes which can help yourself and others also. In short, smiling is an expresxsion your happiness of mind.

You might have heard about the Nobel Prize winner - Mother Teresa. As told by her, "if you could see & appreciate other's smile, that is one of the most loving thing in the world.and specially when you are the reason for the other person's happiness and smile"

Naturally, as you call laugher therapy , is a medium of happiness, free from all mental tensions and will definitely help ourself and others too.

Best wishes & always keep smiling..

Yes ,laughing help us in lot.But it is so only when it is natural. When you engage yourself in therapy, you are not doing it naturally, instead you make an effort and exert yourself. Especially, when you are in stress and attempt a therapy, you do more work to convert your real feelings and enter into a fresh feelings. Instead of getting relaxed, you are tiring yourself. If the result in this effort is a natural or real laugh, then there could be some gain. Otherwise it would be only an attempt or a show to others without any benefit. Laughter should be spontaneous and not artificial.

Laughter is the salt and pepper of life.However I feel it should be natural and not contrived. If you institutionalise laughter, I fear it may go the way many institutions have gone.

One should develop an inner attitude that whatever happens it is the Divine's will and face any situation in life with calmness and smile. This kind of groupings in the park who artificially make noices do not suit my nature!! Having said that if the partcipants of laughter therapy do gain and benefit from these excercises, who am I to comment on them!!

Physical benefits of Laughter

Research has shown that laughter has both preventive and therapeutic values.

Laughter helps us keep healthy by enriching the blood with ample supplies of oxygen, the lifeline of our system. According to the science of yoga, life energy (prana) flows through the breath. By controlled and deep breathing we can enhance our own well-being. With the 15-30 minute package offered by the Laughter Club, participant carry home the healthy habit of deep breathing at least 10-20 times a day. This helps to increase the lung capacity, thus enhancing oxygen supply to the body.

Laughter helps to remove the negative effects of STRESS, which is the number one killer today. More than 70% of illnesses like high blood pressure, heart disease, anxiety, depression, frequent coughs and colds, peptic ulcers, insomnia, allergies, asthma, menstrual difficulties, tension headaches, stomach upsets and even cancer, have some connection to stress.

Laughter helps to boost the IMMUNE SYSTEM, which is the master key for maintaining good health.

Other benefits include:

Helps control high blood pressure and heart disease. While there are many factors for these like heredity, obesity, smoking and excessive intake of saturated fats, stress is one of the major factors. Laughter definitely helps to control blood pressure by reducing the release of stress-related hormones and bringing relaxation.

Increasing stamina through increased oxygen supply

Alleviates pain and gives a sense of well being by releasing endorphins, the body’s painkiller hormones.

Effective antidote for depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders: laughter boosts the production of serotonin, a natural anti-depressant.

Gives an excellent internal massage to the digestive tract and enhances blood supply to important internal organs like the liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys and adrenal glands.

Ensures good sleep and reduces snoring because laughter is very good for the muscles of the soft palate and throat

Brings a happy glow to your face and makes your eyes shine with a thin film of tears which are squeezed from the lachrymal sacs during the act of laughter.

Contra-Indications

Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. You cannot laugh too little, but you can laugh too much and put your body into destress. Laughing is a powerful form of exercise that gives you more of a cardiovascular workout than many "regular" aerobic activities. A typical Laughter Yoga session lasts about 20 to 30 minutes. Anything beyond 30 minutes is in the red zone and may adversely affect a lot of people, especially seniors. Use your common sense: no strain, no new pains. Please take time to familiarize yourself with our contra-indications and legal disclaimers.

No I don't think so, its a created hype ( may be by the media) as is being done by media yoga guru ramdev in teaching yoga, but, yoga is there centuries ago. Is there any thing new

that is being taught by him, except manipulating though TV media.

If we come to laughing ,a natural laugh is no doubt, is always healthy. As you known that we can have a hearty laugh only when we have no tentions. It not that a laugh helps in easing out tention, but a state of mind of without tentions may result in having good laugh ( which is should come naturally ). Where as an artificial laugh at parks, schools etc., is of no use.

As far as I am cocerned laughter is a fine technique to ease tension , tranquility ,stiff mood,or whatever sour attitude and gloomy of human nature.

This is an alterntive system of treatment invented for the welfare appearence of human mind .

Along wIith yoga and meditation this laughter therapy ,musical therapy shall be practiced.

* Laughter therapy boosts the interferon levels of the immune system which helps the system's ability to fight illness and escalates healing. Laughter decreases stress hormones that constrict blood vessels and suppress immune activity.

* Muscle Relaxation - Belly laugh results in muscle relaxation. While you laugh, the muscles that do not participate in the belly laugh, relaxes. After you finish laughing those muscles involved in the laughter start to relax. So, the action takes place in two stages.

* Reduction of Stress Hormones - Laughter reduces at least four of neuroendocrine hormones associated with stress response. These are epinephrine, cortisol, dopac, and growth hormone.

* Immune System Enhancement - Clinical studies have shown that humor strengthens the immune system.

* Pain Reduction - Humor allows a person to "forget" about pains such as aches, arthritis, etc.

* Cardiac Exercise - A belly laugh is equivalent to "an internal jogging." Laughter can provide good cardiac conditioning especially for those who are unable to perform physical exercises.

* Blood Pressure - Women seem to benefit more than men in preventing hypertension.

* Respiration - Frequent belly laughter empties your lungs of more air than it takes in resulting in a cleansing effect - similar to deep breathing. Especially beneficial for patient's who are suffering from emphysema and other respiratory ailments.

In modern times, the tendency is toward acceptance of incongruity as the probable cause of laughter, and incongruity-based theories are slowly gaining ground, although other schools of thought still hold some favour. A common explanation of humour (in the broader sense of 'laughter-provoking') is based on language. Premises: as we interpret a text, we automatically consider what language says, supposes, doesn't say, and implies (this is the perspective of hermeneutics); the sentences we listen to and we tell, follow the universal conversational rules, that can be reduced to only one: be relevant.

Laughter therapy helps a person to unwind the pent up tension and negativeness, jealousy,harm etc. After a good laugh one feels very light in their mind and they feel good about all things around them.It helps them to think well. In other words it is a medicine.Blessed is the person who can make others laugh .

We all know a saying that "Laugh a lot, it costs nothing", is absolutely true. When we really get tired of doing our routine work we feel either boredom or depressed or even frustrated and create a negaive atmosphere for ourselves and for others around us. But instead of that if we for sometime keep our routine and just move to a group and discuss them some of our funny movements we really get relief from tension and a lot of negative effects of tiredness on ourselves.

Like a healthy mind keeps a healthy body, a good laughing hour can keep all day happier.

I really think laughter is the best medicine for all for healthy thoughts.