Patient humor assists in healing and staving off negative feelings and emotions

Patients, physicians and health-care professionals recognize that patients who maintain a positive mental attitude and who share humor and laughter respond better to treatment.Humor and laughter can have powerful effects on the body, mind and spirit.

Finding humor in a situation and being able to laugh about it may very well be the best medicine and antidote to stress.

A sense of humor enables us to find happiness, to laugh and release tension. Humor and laughter benefit the body, the mind and the spirit.

When we can laugh at a situation or a problem, it gives us a feeling of control, which can result in a more positive and hopeful attitude.

We are not as prone to depression and feeling helpless, if we can laugh at what troubles us. Humor and laughter provide us with a sense of perspective to our problems.They help us find balance and maintain a quality of life.

A strong sense of humor and ability to laugh can help the immune system and 'humor-laughter' programs can have a long-lasting effect.They are effective coping tools for people who are ill, or suffering from serious diseases.

The fact that they are effective in self-care has certainly been proven in studies, research, and documented experiences of people like Norman Cousins, who laughed himself to wellness.

Laughing and readily seeing the humor in situations also helps the health-care professionals, so it becomes therapeutic for both the patient and the health-care professional.

Laughter is a pleasurable experience, while we are laughing it pushes aside feelings of anger and fear, giving us a feeling of control, being carefree and hopeful that things will have a positive outcome.

This is important for the patient, as it minimizes the feelings of anger, fear, stress and loneliness, which are so common with being hospitalized and recovering from surgery or illness.

Being hospitalized, separated from family and friends, and unfamiliar and evasive procedures, all contribute to create stress, anxiety, depression, anger, panic, loneliness and discomfort for the hospitalized person.

All the negative emotions cause changes that are harmful to the body, which can be eased with humor and laughter. Humor and laughter are truly the shock absorbers of life.

Even in history, we find mention of the healing powers of humor and laughter. The ancient Greek physicians prescribed for their patients to visit the hall of comedians. Physicians would send their patients to the theater to be entertained as part of the healing process.

Early Native Americans had clowns who worked with witch doctors. They too realized the powerful effects of humor and laughter in healing. The third most important person in the tribe was the clown.

It would seem that we have re-discovered what was practiced in the past.

Patient humor is most often initiated by nurses, because laughter for nurses is as critical for survival on the job, as patient humor is for patient healing and staving off negative feelings and emotions.