It had always been assumed that sense of humor can help patients cope with their disease, but there were no available scientific studies to support this assumption.
Until now, that is.
A study by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and St. Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim found that sense of humor does help prolong life.
Published in the November 2006 issue of The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, the study involved severe kidney patients (n = 52), most of whom required a once-a-week — others, daily — dialysis treatment. Forty-one of the patients completed a questionnaire that sought to determine their age, gender, education, quality of life, and sense of humor.
The researchers found that those who had high scores in their sense of humor had a reduced risk of dying from kidney disease within two years by as much as 30 percent. This was after adjustments for other factors affecting the patients’ health issues, quality of life and other conditions had been made.
The researchers concluded that sense of humor appeared to help kidney patients cope with their condition and, upon survival, protect them against the detrimental effects of disease-related stressors.
This piece is a rehashed version (by me) of the medical news article "Humour Helps You Live Longer" published in the Medical News Today website and of the research abstract available at the MdLinx website.
2 comments:
Ops,....will you count pouting as a "sense" of humor Ms. Benosa?
ehk ehk ehk! I know one!
smile goes a long way(miles)
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