- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Laughter
may be the best medicine, but even looking forward to having a good laugh
can boost the immune system and reduce stress, U.S. researchers reported
on Wednesday.
-
- Just anticipating a happy, funny event can raise levels
of endorphins and other pleasure and relaxation-inducing hormones and lower
production of stress hormones, a team at the University of California Irvine
said.
-
- "This stuff is real," Lee Berk, an assistant
professor of family medicine and researcher in complementary and alternative
medicine who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
-
- "This study shows that even knowing you will be
involved in a positive humorous event days in advance reduces levels of
stress hormones in the blood and increases levels of chemicals known to
aid relaxation," he said.
-
- His team tested 16 men who all agreed they thought a
certain videotape was funny. Half of them were told three days in advance
they would watch it.
-
- Those who knew in advance they would see the video started
experiencing biological changes right away, Berk told a meeting of the
Society for Neuroscience in Orlando, Florida.
-
- When the men watched the video, levels of cortisol, a
stress hormone, fell 39 percent, Berk found. Epinephrine, also known as
adrenaline, fell 70 percent, while levels of the feel-good hormone endorphin
rose 27 percent and growth hormone levels rose by 87 percent.
-
- "Growth hormone is very beneficial to the immune
system," Berk said.
-
- This all suggests that anticipation of a funny event
can lower stress and stimulate the immune system, Berk said.
-
- He said he had to work with a small group of similar
men because he could not decide for them what would be funny. "Say
you can't stand Laurel and Hardy -- watching a slapstick Laurel and Hardy
video would be stressful for you," he said.
-
- "This group picked a fellow who uses the 'sledgeamatic'
-- a big sledgehammer and smashes fruit," Berk added.
-
- Berk and others had already shown that actually watching
a funny video, or just laughing at a joke, could make healthful changes
in the levels of hormones involved in stress and lower blood pressure.
In 2000 a team at the University of Maryland reported that people who reported
using humor more often were less likely to have had heart attacks.
-
- But this is the first time that someone has shown anticipation
of having fun has similar effects, Berk said.
-
- "You have been thinking about it all day, so you
experience a change in biology even before you get there," Berk said.
"That is therapeutic."
-
- Berk said the finding strengthens the advice that everyone
lighten up a little to live longer. "Anticipation is half or two-thirds
the fun," he said.
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