The Laughter Effect

January 8, 2024
Ben-Moshe (Laughing at Cancer), an adjunct lecturer in positive psychology at La Trobe University, sets out to prove in this cheery if disjointed outing that laughter can indeed be the best medicine. Battling chronic fatigue syndrome in her 20s, the author stumbled across “laughter yoga” (which combines deep breathing, clapping, ”chanting ho ho, ha, ha, ha” and “simulated laughter exercises”) at a health conference. She experienced “immediate” relief, and promptly began studying to become a laughter yoga leader. Writing that laughter switches off the body’s fight-or-flight response and activates beta endorphins, the body’s “internal source of morphine,” Ben-Moshe explains that simply going to a comedy show or practicing laughter yoga can reduce pain and alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms. Elsewhere, she cites a study suggesting women who spent 15 minutes with a clown after an IVF procedure were more likely to have a successful implantation than those who didn’t. (Couples looking to conceive would do well to “enjoy a productive laugh” together, Ben-Moshe writes; while the evidence isn’t incontrovertible, “worst-case scenario: you’ll have a laugh. Best-case scenario: you’ll have a life!”). Though the guidance is somewhat disorganized (scientific research and personal anecdote mix with self-help exercises such as writing a “gratitude letter to yourself” and bits of advice from a “Serotonin Sister—an upbeat incarnation of Dear Abby”), Ben-Moshe’s relentlessly upbeat tone is hard to resist. This energetic testament to the power of levity has its moments.