Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: [Part] III. Laughter and Health Outcomes

Humor and Laughter May Influence Health: III. Laughter and Health Outcomes

This is part three of a four-part series reviewing the evidence on how humor influences physiological and psychological well-being. The first article included basic background information, definitions and a review of the theoretical underpinnings for this area of research. The second article discussed use of humor as a complementary therapy within various clinical samples, as well as evidence c...

Humor and Laughter May Influence Health IV. Humor and Immune Function

This is the final article in a four part series reviewing the influence of humor and laughter on physiological and psychological well-being. This final article reviews the evidence for the effect of sense of humor, exposure to a humor stimulus and laughter on various immune system components, with a focus on the effects of laughter on natural killer cell cytotoxicity.

Humor and Laughter May Influence Health [Part] IV. Humor and Immune Function

Humor and Laughter may Influence Health. I. History and Background

Articles in both the lay and professional literature have extolled the virtues of humor, many giving the impression that the health benefits of humor are well documented by the scientific and medical community. The concept that humor or laughter can be therapeutic goes back to biblical times and this belief has received varying levels of support from the scientific community at different points...

NAflRATIVE REVIEW THE THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF LAUGHTER IN MEDICINE

Objective • The aim of this review is to identiiy, critically evaluate, and summarize the laughter literature across a number of fields related to medicine and health care to assess to what extent laughter health-related benefits are currently supported by empirical evidence. Data Sources and Study Selection • A comprehensive laughter literature search was performed. A thorough search of the gr...