Go ahead and laugh off science

Q: I have breast cancer, and my friend told me that laughing can help my immune system and fight the cancer. Is that true?

A: We all feel better after we laugh. So it makes sense that people are getting more interested in studying the effect of humor on health.

One recent study of 33 healthy women found that those who watched a funny movie and laughed liberally had lower self-reported stress and increased natural-killer-cell activity afterward. (Sounds a lot more entertaining than most of the studies I read.)

In contrast, the women in the control group who watched a tourism video instead didn't have that response. Natural killer cells are part of a large team of cells which compose the immune system, and help fight cancer and viruses. In theory, boosting their activity may help your results with cancer treatment, though the proof is still not definitive.

There have been several studies that have shown that laughing boosts natural-killer-cell activity, with a few exceptions. In general, though, the studies are small and not always the best design.

That said, I think this is a good time to acknowledge the value of common sense. Sometimes medicine gets so caught up in proving things with scientific studies that we lose the forest through the trees. I remember one research article that said (and I am paraphrasing here) although humor is often used for healing, there is little scientific evidence to support these types of claims.

It reminds me of the time someone did a review of all the scientific literature, and published a study saying that we didn't have enough data to prove that if you jumped out of a flying plane, you needed a parachute.

The fact is we can't do studies on everything. As a nation, and a world, we have neither the financial resources nor the time to do a "double blind randomized control trial" on every question we have. Given that, the ideal would be to prioritize our money for interventions which have the highest risk — which in my opinion, would include many of our conventional medical approaches.

Laughter, on the other hand, is about as low-risk as you can go. And it's the rare human being who hasn't experienced its cathartic power. So regardless of how many studies have been done on laughter, I think it's a safe bet to try.

Dr. Astrid Pujari is a Seattle M.D. with an additional degree as a medical herbalist; she practices at the Pujari Center and teaches as part of the residency programs at Virginia Mason and Swedish/Cherry Hill hospitals. Send questions to apujari@seattletimes.com for possible use in future columns. All information is intended for education and not a substitute for medical advice. Consult your doctor before following any suggestions given here.