Humor and Laughter May Influence Health [Part] IV. Humor and Immune Function

Mary Payne Bennett, Western Kentucky University
Cecile Lengacher, School of Nursing and University of South Florida

Article comments

eCAM 2007; © 2007 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1093/ecam/nem149

Abstract

This is the final article in a four part series reviewing the influence of humor and laughter on physiological and psychological well-being. This final article reviews the evidence for the effect of sense of humor, exposure to a humor stimulus and laughter on various immune system components, with a focus on the effects of laughter on natural killer cell cytotoxicity.