Be Happy – Laughter Reduces Cardiovascular Risk and Lowers Cholesterol for Diabetics

Mirthful laughter was linked to lower cholesterol and less risk of cardiovascular disease in a study of high-risk diabetic patients, U.S. researchers said. The addition of an adjunct therapeutic mirthful laughter Rx (a potential modulator of positive mood state) to standard diabetes care may lower stress and inflammatory response and increase “good” cholesterol levels.

Lee Berk, a psychoneuroimmunologist, of Loma Linda University, and Dr. Stanley Tan, an endocrinologist and diabetes specialist at Oak Crest Health Research Institute in Loma Linda, examined the effects of mirthful laughter on 20 high-risk diabetic patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia — an elevation of lipids in the bloodstream.

Both groups were started on standard medications for diabetes — glipizide, TZD, metformin, ACE inhibitors and statins. The researchers tracked both groups for 12 months, testing their blood for the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine; HDL cholesterol; inflammatory cytokines, which contribute to the acceleration of atherosclerosis and C-reactive proteins, a marker of inflammation and cardiovascular disease.

One group viewed self-selected humor for 30 minutes in addition to the standard drug therapies.

At the end of one year, 26 percent of the laughter group had higher levels of high-density lipoprotein, the “good” cholesterol, compared to 3 percent in the control group. Harmful C-reactive proteins decreased 66 percent in the laughter group versus 26 percent for the control group.

The patients in the laughter group (Group L) had lower epinephrine and norepinephrine levels by the second month, suggesting lower stress levels. They had increased HDL (good) cholesterol. The laughter group also had lower levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6 and hs-CRP levels, indicating lower levels of inflammation.

The study suggests that the addition of an adjunct therapeutic mirthful laughter Rx (a potential modulator of positive mood state) to standard diabetes care may lower stress and inflammatory response and increase “good” cholesterol levels. The authors conclude that mirthful laughter may thus lower the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. Further studies need to be done to expand and elucidate these findings.

In describing himself as a “hardcore medical clinician and scientist,” Dr. Berk says, “the best clinicians understand that there is an intrinsic physiological intervention brought about by positive emotions such as mirthful laughter, optimism and hope. Lifestyle choices have a significant impact on health and disease and these are choices which we and the patient exercise control relative to prevention and treatment.”

The connection between the body, mind and spirit has been the subject of conventional scientific inquiry for some 20 years. The notion that psychosocial and societal considerations have a role in maintaining health and preventing disease became crystallized as a result of the experiences of a layman, Norman Cousins. In the 1970s, Cousins, then a writer and magazine editor of the popular Saturday Review, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. He theorized that if stress could worsen his condition, as some evidence suggested at the time, then positive emotions could improve his health. As a result, he prescribed himself, with the approval of his doctor, a regimen of humorous videos and shows like Candid Camera©. Ultimately, the disease went into remission and Cousins wrote a paper that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and a book about his experience, Anatomy of an Illness: A Patient’s Perspective, which was published in 1979. The book became a best seller and led to the investigation of a new field, known then as whole-person care or integrative medicine and now, lifestyle medicine.

They presented the findings entitled Mirthful Laughter, As Adjunct Therapy in Diabetic Care, Increases HDL Cholesterol and Attenuates Inflammatory Cytokines and hs-CRP and Possible CVD Risk, at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Physiological Society, which is part of the Experimental Biology 2009 scientific conference. The meeting was held April 18-22, 2009 in New Orleans.