LaughingRx for Cancer Patients

Testimonial from a LaughingRx cancer patient class participant:

"I just had a miracle!"  Louise L. said to everyone in Nira's LaughingRx class at The Wellness Community, Bethesda, Maryland,  May 2, 2008.
I haven't been able to bend my right knee to sit down or stand up for the past two years.  I've had so many treatments that haven't worked.  I've had water removed from my knee, I've had cortisone shots, nothing has helped me.  After 1 hour class with Nira and participating in her LaughingRx class, I am able to stand and sit down without any pain.  I am able to stand and sit down using my right knee!  It's miraculous.  I've always heard that laughing is the best medicine, but this is a miracle.  This will change the quality of my life. I can't wait to get to the next LaughingRx class with Nira."

Nira Berry, founder of LaughingRx yoga is a breast cancer survivor herself and has used laughing yoga for many years to manage her pain when needed, boost her immune system and to promote a positive outlook and feeling of overall wellbeing .

Nira  Berry  recently  was a key-note speaker for theSuburban Hospital Breast Cancer Symposium for several hundred breast cancer patients and survivors.  "The audience  was  roaring with laughter and gave me a great feeling that I was helping these women and men in their healing journey." Nira Berry

Laughter Yoga and Cancer

Cancer is the second most common killer after heart disease today. The number of people suffering from cancer is rising constantly. The most common cause of cancer is stress. Extreme physical, mental and emotional stress weakens our immune system.

A weak immune system is a major causative factor in the development of cancer. Scientific studies have proved that hearty laughter has a powerful and immediate strengthening effect on our immune system.
Laughter quickly increases immunoglobulin levels that help fight infection and increases the number of Natural Killer Cells (NK cells) in the blood. Natural killer cells play a key role in cancer prevention. Dr Berk took blood samples from subjects watching humourous videos and found that natural killer cells increased significantly with laughter. The NK cells in bllod samples from laughing subjects quickly killed cancer cells he introduced into the samples.
The Healing Effects of Laughter in Cancer Patients
Cancer is considered a killer disease. When someone is struck with cancer it leads to intense stress and fear.
How can laughter yoga help? Laughter Yoga as a physical intervention leads to real physiological and biochemical changes in our body that have a profound effect on the development of cancer.

Laughter yoga provides a non-intellectual path to laughter.
Cancer patients may be in emotional turmoil and become depressed, making it difficult for them to achieve laughter through intellectual stimuli like humorous videos. Laughter yoga approaches laughter as a body exercise that can easily be done regardless of mood.
Laughter helps counter stress and fear. Hearty laughter causes the brain to release chemicals that reduce stress within minutes. It is typical to measure a 70% reduction in stress indicators after just 10 minutes of laughter.
Laughter promotes a positive outlook. Hearty laughter quickly counters depression and negative outlook, especially when practiced within a group of peers. This is partly due to chemicals released by the brain and partly caused by a powerful emotional response to the group dynamics of laughter yoga.

A positive mental state is very important when a person who is fighting a deadly disease like Cancer.

Laughter helps deal with pain. Hearty laughter causes the brain to release endorphin, a natural morphine that is also responsible for the ‘runner’s high’. A typical laughter yoga session can provide two hours of pain relief without drugs, making it easier for patients to retian full control of their mental abilities and keep their spirits high.

Laughter oxygenates the body. Ten minutes of heartyy laughter leaves the body and all major organs super-oxygenized. Ongoing cancer research shows a strong relationship between oxygen in our cells and the development of cancer.

Nobel Prize winner (twice in the field of medicine) Dr Otto Warburg has shown the strong connection of oxygen in the cells to health.  He says we fall sick due to lack of oxygen in our body cells. The lack of oxygen is due to poor breathing habits caused by stress and negative mindset. This causes us to breathe shallow, irregular breaths and hold are breath when under stress.

Laughter yoga uses a combination of laughter exercises and yoga breathing to train our diaphragm and abdominal muscles to breathe deeply. This increases the net supply of oxygen to body cells and can play a significant role in preventing cancer by increasing oxygen levels in the body cells.

Laughter strengthens the immune system.

Medical studies around the world have shown that ten minutes of hearty laughter has a sudden and dramatically powerful effect in strengthening the immune system. This is where Laughter Yoga can play an important role in bringing laughter from the body not from the mind. Laughter as a physical exercise helps to bring similar physiological and biochemical changes without involving the mind. This is much easier for most people to do laughter from the body, and still get the similar benefits.

There is no doubt that regular practice of laughter yoga will strongly influence whether a person develops cancer and has a very strong preventative action.

While I would never claim that laughter yoga can cure cancer, I am absolutely certain that it can help cancer patients in many ways and should be combined with other forms of treatment to provide cancer patients with the best quality of life and the best possible chance of survival.

Over the past 11 years many people with cancer have taken up laughter yoga. It has helped them to eliminate their depression and create a positive mental state, and has improved their quality of life. Many of these people beat their cancer, and some believe that laughter yoga played an important role in their success.


Letter from Australia

Greatly inspired by Laughter Yoga Clubs I started to laugh all by myself every day after meditation. The laughter exercises include chants of Ho Ho, Ha Ha and deep breathing. I also do these exercises even while walking. I allow myself to be spontaneous and childlike and make funny movements. I even sing some positive affirmations like:

I am happy tee hee hee; I am free tee hee hee; I am healthy tee hee hee; I am strong tee hee hee…

Regular practice of laughing alone has had a tremendous effect on my health condition. Though suffering from a tumor for some time, I can feel it getting smaller. Even my specialist was amazed when he realized it had shrunk remarkably. He cancelled the radiotherapy and said,’ I am happy to keep an eye on it for now. I really believe it’s laughter, meditation and positive affirmations that have worked so wonderfully together.’

I also think laughter is anti-ageing. Though I’m 60 I feel very energetic, there is less pain and I can easily do a lot of things. People remark I look much better and younger!

Des Nicholson Melbourne Australia

Letter from USA

I am a Registered Nurse and had breast cancer 4 years ago. I became interested in laughter yoga as part of my recovery. I can personally confirm that the laugher has helped my immune system, has helped me maintain a positive attitude and pull myself out of a negative state and that yogic breathing has been important in my recovery. I have been cancer free so far for 4 years now. I have not had a cold or been sick in 20 months so far. I have been doing laughter yoga regularly for 2 years. I started my laughter club in St Louis primarily out of my own need for bringing the power of laughter into my recovery.
Marlene Chertok USA

Gazette Newspaper article:                                          Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008
Laughing yoga participants tout practice's health benefits
by Andrew Ujifusa | Potomac Gazette Newspaper Staff Writer

The inventors of yoga thousands of years ago probably did not envision plastic camouflage helmets, conga lines, and Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" as part of the routine. But Nira Berry doesn't particularly care. In fact, she'd probably laugh them off.

Berry is a teacher of laughter yoga, a series of role-playing exercises and relaxation routines that allow people to laugh out loud without trying to crack jokes. She even has an arresting motto for newcomers who don't think they can force their way to authentic guffaws: "You fake it until you make it."

"You don't need to have a sense of humor to laugh," Berry told about 50 participants, mostly newcomers, at a laughter yoga session at Suburban Hospital on Dec. 9.

Berry's routine consists of four components: laughter, clapping, breathing and "childlike playfulness." The exercises range from simply waving one's arms back and forth while chanting "Ho ho, ha ha ha!" to multi-step routines that incorporate laughter into physical imitations of morning routines. When participants mime spreading shaving cream on their faces, they giggle and pretend to smear the stuff on their neighbor's cheeks. They even mock the laughter of co-workers.

At one point, Berry stands on the stage, divides the group into three laughing styles of "Ho!" "Ha!" and "Hee!" and, just like a comedic Kurt Mazur at the New York Philharmonic, waves her arms rhythmically over the crowd and prompts different cadences and patterns of laughter.

The group then moves from the orchestral to the downright absurd, donning piratical hats, wigs and Hawaiian leis and forming a conga line that parades down the aisles and through the seats for more than five minutes to the strains of "Celebration." Participants are told to stomp on imaginary everyday problems and cackle derisively. Every routine is punctuated by Berry's infectious laughter.

Veterans of laughter yoga are particularly bold, bellowing out grotesque and twisted forms of merriment that in turn draw out the laughter of more cautious participants, creating a mutually reinforcing echo chamber. At one point, Berry flubs a line in her yoga rap song, sending people off on a new round of laughter.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" Iris Andris of Bethesda whispered in the middle of the recurring "Ho ho, ha ha ha!" chant.

Only the 15-minute deep-breathing and body-awareness routines at the end of the session recall typical yoga. But Berry touts the various health benefits of the practice, which was started by an Indian doctor in the mid-1990s. Ten minutes of sustained laughter, she claims, is the cardiovascular equivalent of 30 minutes on the exercise bike and boosts endorphin levels.

She leads laughter yoga exercises for a wide variety of groups, from University of Maryland students to corporations looking for creative team-building exercises.

Berry, whose business is called LaughingRx Yoga, got interested in laughter yoga during a bout with cancer eight years ago. During her recovery, when friends asked her if she wanted anything, she said she asked for things that made her laugh, like the movie "My Cousin Vinny." The practice is also supposed to help people with allergies and asthma.

"I was looking for an alternative way to heal myself," she said.

Andris said when she first heard about laughter yoga, she was skeptical. But after the one-and-a-half hour session, she felt relaxed and felt as if she had been through a real workout. She was also impressed with Berry's ability to overcome much of the group's initial timidity.

"It was amazing watching her bring us all together," she said.

Rockville resident Zohreh Movahed had done laughter yoga before, when her sister-in-law, an employee at the National Institutes of Health, told her about it. She said she was happy to laugh without worrying about offending people.

"When people start laughing, you realize you're not alone," she said.
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