UCLA studies humor, pain relief

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UCLA studies humor, pain relief

http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/09/03/healthy.humor.ap/index.html

(AP) -- Imagine a painkiller that could treat a variety of ailments,

available without a prescription, whose only side effects are chuckles,

giggles and maybe even guffaws. The cost? At most, the price of a video.

UCLA researchers are hoping humor will prove to be a miracle pill in a

study examining a tantalizing premise: What if something that makes you

feel good can stop you from feeling bad?

They're testing the theory in a pain lab at UCLA Medical Center, where

healthy children are asked to submerge their hands in frigid ice water.

Watching videos ranging from clips of old Marx Brothers' films to " The

Simpsons " helps the youngsters endure the ice bath. The researchers hope

it ultimately will help ease the pain of kids sick with cancer and other

debilitating diseases, and maybe even help them heal.

Preliminary results indicate the kids watching funny videos were able to

keep their hands in the ice bath 40 percent longer. The idea for the

study came from a former TV sit-com executive. It was an instant hit

with Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer, a pediatric pain specialist, and colleague Dr.

Margaret Stuber, a UCLA psychiatry professor. " We looked at each other

and said, 'Gee, why didn't we think of this, " ' Zeltzer said. " It makes

perfect sense. "

Psychoneuroimmunology

Some researchers believe humor works simply as a distraction. They point

out that other studies have shown that other kinds of emotion -- even

sadness or disgust -- have a similar effect. The notion that humor might

actually produce healing-enhancing changes in the body is gaining

respect among some scientists in a field called psychoneuroimmunology,

which studies interactions between the brain and the body's

disease-fighting immune system.

Prominent humor-health researcher Lee Berk says the notion that

entertainment may be healing is actually very old, dating at least to

the ancient Greeks, who used to build hospitals next to amphitheaters

for the benefit of patients. Berk, assistant adjunct professor of family

medicine at the University of California at Irvine, says he coined the

term eustress -- 'eu' meaning 'good' in Greek -- to define what happens

to the body when it feels mirthful, or the opposite of stress.

In a stressful or painful situation, the body increases production of

stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine. That in turn causes an

increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Research has shown that

stress can also inhibit the body's immune system and make people prone

to illness. Some studies also suggest that humor just might have the

opposite effect.

A Japanese study published earlier this year in the Journal of the

American Medical Association found that skin welts shrank in allergy

patients who watched Charlie Chaplin's comedic classic " Modern Times. "

And land researchers reported last year that people with healthy

hearts were more likely to laugh in humorous situations than people with

heart disease. Though the finding may simply suggest that having heart

disease makes people feel less like laughing, the scientists think it

also could mean that having a sense of humor somehow protects the heart.

" Maybe science is starting to catch up to intuition, " said Berk.

The late journalist-author Norman Cousins laid the groundwork with his

pioneering 1979 book, " Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the

Patient, " describing how laughter helped reduce his pain from a

debilitating joint disease called ankylosing spondylitis.

Berk, who was among the first to use science to help explain Cousins'

findings, has a cartoon he likes to show people, depicting a doctor

telling a patient, " Take two Laurel and Hardy tapes and one Abbott and

Costello and call me in the morning. " That's the kind of advice the UCLA

researchers hope to one day prescribe.

Smaller doses of pain medication?

Former TV executive Sherry Hilber, who worked on such shows as

" Roseanne " and " Home Improvement " brought the idea to UCLA, where

Cousins worked when he died in 1990. With her show-biz connections,

Hilber lined up initial funding and support from relatives of such

comedy greats as Harpo Marx, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields and Lou

Costello. " If my dad were here, I know he would be the first one

rallying and probably carrying videos by the truckload " to the hospital,

said Costello, the comedian's daughter.

In the UCLA study, the researchers are gauging the impact of humor on

the physiologic responses to stress in 30 children, ages 8 to 18. The

scientists are examining changes in heart rate, blood pressure and

levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the children's saliva in

response to watching the videos.

Stuber and Zeltzer hope to continue the research by studying sick

children, with hopes that humor will alleviate their pain and perhaps

even strengthen their immune systems. The result could mean smaller

doses of narcotic pain medication, shorter hospital stays and better

quality of life, Zeltzer said.

Most of the funding for psychoneuroimmunology research goes into studies

on the negative effects of stress on the immune system. It's a more

accepted concept and one that can easily be studied in animals, said

Coe, a University of Wisconsin researcher and president of

the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society.

Coe's research in monkeys suggests that creating positive feelings can

counteract the negative effects of stressful situations on the immune

system. When monkeys were moved to a new, unfamiliar environment, blood

tests showed a significant reduction in their ability to make

disease-fighting antibodies. But when the monkey had a primate companion

in the move, there were no negative effects, Coe said.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.