Laughter Yoga: Benefits of Mixing Laughter and Yoga

Abstract

Copyright: © 2015 Woodbury-Farina MA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. In most medical practices, there is the complaint that it is too difficult to set a time aside for yoga and a good laugh. Those that do, obtain definite benefit. Yoga, for instance, has been shown to improve depression [1]. Yoga and humor both increase oxytocin, the cuddle hormone, which is now being tied to diverse benefits such as enhancing immune responses as well as improving cognition deficits in schizophrenia [2,3]. Now there is even evidence that there is a link between our gut microbes and oxytocin, with each enhancing each other [4]. Living a non-stressful life helps to promote beneficial gut microbes which then can stimulate the oxytocin to generate a state of positive homeostasis on the body which in turn gives a nurturing feedback to maintain the beneficial bacteria [5]. The gut to oxytocin relationship was proven to be via the vagus nerve in elegant experiments in mice using lactobacillus reuteri. Oxytocin and the gut microbes need to act in unison in order to see the maximum benefit, here in wound healing [4]. The cycle is interrupted when we are under stress or eating unhealthily. The implication is that we need to see that our beneficial bacteria receive beneficial probiotics so that they are able to send positive oxytocin stimulating signals via the vagus nerve. In order to offset the negative influences of stress on the gut bacteria, we need to cultivate oxytocin promoting interventions that can result in a positive oxytocin feedback to these bacteria. Humor and yoga can both do so, especially when they meet as in laughter yoga.