Laughing yoga better than relaxation breathing for stress reduction: Study

Written By : Medha Baranwal |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2021-07-24T09:00:18+05:30 | Updated On 24 July 2021 9:00 AM IST

Germany: Laughter yoga (LY) can attenuate cortisol stress response compared to relaxation breathing, finds a recent study in the International Journal on the Biology of Stress.

The findings indicate that LY can be used as an easy to implement and cheap add-on to more traditional stress interventions.

Stress can lead to the development of a number of psychiatric diseases. There is a need for affordable and effective treatment alternatives in lieu of increasing stress-related complaints. Laughter yoga is a popular method that encourages participants to stimulate laughter and participate in yogic breathing exercise and is hypothesized to reduce the negative effects of stress. LY, although practiced widely, the evidence for its beneficial effects are scarce.

Against the above background, Maria Meiera, Department of Psychology, University of Constance, Constance, Germany, and colleagues aimed to investigate the acute effects of a single 30-min LY session on the autonomic, endocrine and psychological response to a standardized psychosocial stressor.

The study included 35 healthy (51% females). They were randomly assigned to receive either a relaxation breathing (n = 12) or a (non-intervention) control (n = 12) session. They were then exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G).

Salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase, and subjective stress were assessed repeatedly throughout the experiment. The researchers expected that LY and relaxation breathing group each show a downregulation of stress response indices compared to the control group. Also, it was expected that LY has beneficial effects compared to relaxation breathing.

Key findings of the study include:

The groups did not differ in salivary cortisol, alpha amylase or subjective stress reactivity during the 30-min intervention.
In response to the TSST-G, the LY, but neither the relaxation breathing, nor the control condition, showed an attenuated cortisol stress response.

"These findings highlight the potential of LY to buffer the endocrine stress response," wrote the authors.

"LY therefore, could be used as a cheap and easily-to-implement add-on to more traditional stress," they concluded.

Reference:

The study titled, "Laughter yoga reduces the cortisol response to acute stress in healthy individuals," is published in the International Journal on the Biology of Stress.

DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10253890.2020.1766018

International Journal on the Biology of Stresslaughter yogastresscortisol

Source : International Journal on the Biology of Stress

Medha Baranwal

MSc. Biotechnology

Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751