More than 70 percent of the 30 cancer patients in a laughter yoga program reported sleeping better, experiencing less pain and feeling less depressed after taking some classes, Taichung Hospital said recently.
Laughter yoga teaches people to laugh hard, which increases endorphin release, helps improve their emotional well-being, enhances their immune system, and reduces inflammation and stress hormones, said Liao Chih-Ying (廖志穎), director of the hospital’s radiation oncology department.
Liao, who introduced laughter yoga from the US to the hospital in October last year, said most cancer patients experience different degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder, with about 40 percent suffering depression, anxiety, insomnia or chronic stress when they experience pain or are undergoing treatment.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The increase in stress hormones, adrenaline and inflammation-
related genes also weaken their immune system, allowing cancer cells to become more aggressive and enhancing the risks of cancer metastasis, he said.
Laughter yoga leads to the release of endorphins and fake laughter can gradually become real laughter through constant practice, he said.
The endorphins can help relieve stress, improve their mood and immune system, and even prevent the recurrence and spread of cancer, he added.
The hospital invited yoga teacher Lai Ching-ju (賴晴如) to give a one-hour class to cancer patients every week, and after two months, about 70 percent of the participants reported improvements in their problems with sleeping, pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression.
A 48-year-old woman surnamed Hsieh (謝), who owns a cram school and teaches English and essay writing, said she used to work more than 10 hours a day, but was seldom sick, so she found it hard to believe after she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
She underwent surgery and chemotherapy, and suffered from depression and bipolar disorder, losing about 10kg in six months because of the side effects of the treatment. She often locked herself in a room crying, throwing things around, slamming her body against the wall and collected sleeping pills as she contemplated suicide.
When the hospital’s volunteers invited her to attend the laughter yoga class, she could not laugh at all at first. However, by starting first with fake laughs, playing games and practicing meditation, she was able to laugh from the heart during the second class and gradually laughed harder, regained her appetite and continues practicing at home.
She imagined her body completely recovered, read jokes on the Internet and has become truly happy, always greeting people with a smile, Hsieh said.
Laughter yoga has helped improved her relationship with her family and encouraged her to travel, Hsieh said, adding that she has learned to be grateful to the sickness that has turned her life around.
A restaurant owner surnamed Wang (王), who was diagnosed with Stage 3 gastric cancer two years ago, had to have two-thirds of his stomach removed, and went through electrotherapy and chemotherapy. Wang said he thought he was “almost about to die” because he could not eat anything.
He said he was always in low spirits, but later thought he might as well try laughter yoga as a last resort.
“I found out that I wanted to laugh as much as I could, to laugh away the cancer cells and that I would rather die laughing than crying,” Wang said.
“Now, I feel happy all the time, doing volunteer work, Chinese calligraphy, practicing taichi and living an enriched life,” he added.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching