Laughter actually is the best medicine for a key condition

To breathe easier, you might just need to laugh it off.More than 35 million Americans live with a chronic respiratory disease, making it harder to meet the demands of everyday life.Simple daily activities like walking, bathing and dressing can feel like breathing through a straw because of shortness of breath.Tiredness and lack of energy make routine household chores, cooking and shopping difficult.Some chronic respiratory diseases are deadly and incurable, with expensive and inaccessible treatments.

But a nice chuckle could be could be an effective and low-cost way to deal with symptoms of one of the most severe chronic respiratory diseases, a new trial from Turkey showed.Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) happens when swelling and irritation limit airflow in and out of the lungs.Nearly 16 million US adults have this disease, and many more aren’t aware that they have it, the CDC reports.A leading cause of death worldwide, this condition makes breathing difficult, causes frequent coughing and wheezing and worsens over time.

It can prevent patients from getting enough exercise, and even effect their cognition, impacting their ability to concentrate, remember or make decisions.For many patients, COPD is also a significant financial burden.

The types of treatment options vary from costly specialized medications like long-term maintenance inhalers and long-acting bronchodilators to frequent emergency interventions and life long interventions.The average medical cost for a person living with COPD is $16,000 annually, compared to $6,000 for a person without the disease, according to the American Lung Association.Researchers at Hacettepe University Faculty of Nursing in Turkey wanted to explore whether additional simple, low-cost techniques could complement existing COPD care.“Laughter therapy had already shown promising results in a number of other chronic conditions,” said Dr.Goncagul Aldan, a lecturer and nurse who presented the research European Res...