Laughter as Medicine: Breast Cancer and Humor
Living with breast cancer is obviously no joke, especially late-stage breast cancer. But, once the shock of diagnosis is absorbed and initial treatment more or less done, humor can become part of your tool kit to deal with the worry of living with this disease.
The late Beth Caldwell, a 38-year-old metastatic breast cancer patient advocate from Seattle, said, “If you don’t laugh, you’re going to cry your eyes out…it just makes things less awful. As someone who will live with disease for the rest of my life, to never laugh again would be horrific. The jokes make me feel better. The nicest thing people can do for me is just be awesome and come have fun and be happy and make me happy.”
My friend and male breast cancer survivor, Khevin Barnes, who contributed to this episode, once created a free, on-the-phone, live “Laughing through Breast Cancer” 20-minute session five days a week. Cancer survivors could call the conference line to practice laughter and breath-work. Not only that, he teaches the practice of ‘Laughter Yoga’, a form of breath work through spontaneous group laughter which he believes improves mood and mental health.
While both Beth and Khevin reached the same idealogical conclusion about laughter as an aid to healing, science also backs them up. Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford University noted, it’s not so much the intellectual pleasure of humor, but the physical act of laughing, which triggers endorphins, the brain chemicals which are known for their feel-good effect.
On the other hand, Dr. Bonnie McGregor, a clinical psychologist and Executive Director and Founder at Orion Center for Integrative Medicine has said, not everybody finds it helpful. It can be hurtful if the timing isn’t right or the situation isn’t right. So, you have to be careful with it.
For many patients in the online patient community, humor helps them navigate diagnoses and treatments. One blogger wrote, “I joke about myself with others, things like, ooh, I probably shouldn't eat that, I might get cancer, and then laugh like a hyena while I consume, say, a Nutella brioche. Seriously, am I going to juice celery and beets when I may have a short amount of time left to enjoy food?”
And a friend once said to me “personally, I try to look for joy; perhaps that's a combination of happiness and laughter, and I try to use a sense of humor to see joy.”
Studies back up the fact that laughter can be very good medicine and research shows that people feel better, lighter, and more relaxed following therapeutic laughter.
Being a man with breast cancer, I have to say that opportunities for humor came my way regularly. As I removed my pink gown for a mammogram, I said to the technician, “is this possible?”. She laughed and said “let’s give it a go!”
