Laughter therapy may be as effective as eye drops in relieving dry eye symptoms for patients.
- Laughter therapy has many health benefits, including reducing anxiety and chronic pain.
- A team of researchers also suggested that laughter therapy could reduce dry eye.
- According to their results, laughter exercises are as effective as eye drops in treating dry eyes.
Boosting your immune system, reducing anxiety, relieving chronic pain… The health benefits of laughter therapy, or laughter therapy, have been demonstrated in numerous studies. But could this method reduce other symptoms, such as dry eyes? This is the problem that Chinese and British scientists are interested in.
Laughter more effective than eye drops for relieving dry eyes?
For the purposes of this research, published in BMJ journalthe team recruited 283 participants aged 18 to 45 years whose dry eye was assessed using the ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score. The volunteers were divided into two groups: the first received laughter exercises while the second received 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid eye drops.
As part of the laughter therapy, participants watched an instructional video and then repeated the following phrases: “Hee hee hee, hah hah hah, cheese cheese, cheek cheek cheek, hah hah hah hah hah” 30 times in a five-minute session. During the exercises, they also used a facial recognition mobile app to standardize the exercise and improve facial movements.
The control group, meanwhile, applied the eye drops to both eyes four times a day for eight weeks. by tracking frequency of use via the same app. Eight weeks after the start of the study, treatments were stopped and the OSDI score was measured during weeks 10 and 12.
Dry eyes: “laughter exercise could serve as first-line treatment”
According to the results, the OSDI score was 10.5 points lower, indicating less visual discomfort, in the group that had the laughter therapy. For the second panel, the score was 8.83. For the scientists, this suggests that the laughter exercises were no less effective than the eye drops in treating dry eye, although they acknowledge that some limitations may have influenced the conclusions. “As a safe, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive intervention, laughter exercise could serve as a first-line home treatment for people with symptomatic dry eye and limited corneal staining.”they stressed.
