Abstract

Dr. Gayathri Dilliraj* and Dr. B. Shanthi

ABSTRACT

Introduction: “Stress” the potent phychological factor & its impact on the human body, is one of the widely researched areas of interest, globally. Students in particular experience stress at various levels in diverse stages of their lives due to a number of reasons such as a new life environment, lifestyle, health, academic performances, completion, choice of career, relationship with peer groups & expectations of parents etc. Laughter is a human behaviour which is executed chiefly by the brain & laughter therapy has been accepted as a complementary & alternative treatment approach for both mental and physical health issues. Its usage has rapidly become widespread. Among the various known biomarkers of stress, one of the best ways to measure reactivity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, is to measure the easy to obtain and highly reliable biomarker cortisol. Aim: To establish the health benefits of “Laughter therapy to combat stress” amidst students & its impact on cortisol levels. Methods: It is a simple hospital based correlative study carried out in S.B.M.C.H students. The purpose of which was to analyse the role of laughter therapy to combat stress amidst students. The subjects were 150 moderately stressed out students of 17-19yrs of age, consisting of 80 boys and 70 girls with no other known health complications. Their stress levels was estimated using the perceived stress score scale. The study was conducted just one month prior to their semester exams (when they were comparitevely, more stressed out). We engaged them in 30 minutes of laughter therapy (stimulated laughter) /day regularly for 6 days a week for a period of 4 weeks. We measured their serum cortisol levels both before & after the four weeks of regular laughter therapy practise, by ELISA. Results: Students with moderate levels of stress comparitevely had high normal range of serum cortisol levels, prior to the initiation of laughter therapy. Following the regular practise of laughter therapy for 4 weeks their cortisol levels demonstrated significant decrease. Their perceived stress score levels decreased as well. Conclusion: As cortisol is a very good indicator of stress. The significant decrease in its levels suggests, that laughter therapy can be used as the simplest cost effective non pharmacological intervention to combat this global threat called stress. Besides it, students also claimed to have attained a general sense of well being, increased concentrating abilities, a sound sleep with a relaxed state of mind following the regular practise of laughter therapy.