Dry Eye Remedies: Laughter Therapy Found More Effective Than Drops for Dry Eye by Jacob Teitelbaum

Laughter may be the world’s oldest medicine! A funny, randomized controlled study published on September 11, 2024, in the BMJ found that “laughter therapy’’ was non-inferior or slightly more effective than artificial tears for treating symptomatic dry eye disease.

The researchers at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, the largest ophthalmic center in China, recruited 299 participants who were randomly assigned to two group. One used artificial tears (0.1 percent sodium hyaluronic acid eyedrops) four times a day. The other, using “laughter therapy,” repeated the phrases “Hee hee hee, hah hah hah, cheese cheese cheese, cheek cheek cheek, hah hah hah hah hah hah” 30 times per five-minute session four times daily.

Study conclusion: “Laughter exercise was non-inferior to artificial tears (0.1 percent sodium hyaluronic acid) in improving dry eye disease symptoms and clinical signs. Laughter exercise is a safe, environmentally friendly and low-cost intervention for patients with symptomatic dry eye disease and limited corneal staining.”

The benefits in this quirky study suggest that laughter is a potent medicine. A good comedy might have inspired more laughter among participants and possibly even better results, but the bigger takeaway is that our body is the ultimate bio pharmacy – stocked with sophisticated medicines and metabolic pathways that can deliver amazing cures – even through shedding tears of laughter.

Laughter has been known for its healing effects since ancient times, e.g., Proverbs 17:22 in the Bible proclaims, “A joyful heart does good like a medicine; but a broken spirit dries the bones.”

Every doctor has anecdotal evidence that validates this proverbial wisdom. Norman Cousins, famed author and editor-in-chief at the Saturday Review magazine, healed himself in 1964 of a painful, life-threatening disorder through vitamin C and laughter when conventional medicine offered no relief.

Cousins watched Marx Brothers movies and reruns of TV’s Candid Camera, among other laugh-inducing programs. His doctors were skeptical, but the patient laughed his way to a successful recovery.” Cousins’ best-selling book, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration, was published in 1979, a year after he became an adjunct professor of medical humanities at UCLA, championing the field of psychoneuroimmunology.

Have you laughed today?

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