A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B is now suggesting that laughter can be all that you need to help increase your pain tolerance.  Though how the study was carried out is questionable, the end result confirmed that laughter still really is our best medicine.

Researchers from the University of Oxford worked with US and European researchers in this British Academy Centenary Research Project study.  There were six separate experimental studies conducted.  Five of the experiments involved having one set of adults, the control group, watch a factual documentary which was not funny, and having one set of adults, the experimental group, watch a comedy video.  The sixth group had audience members at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival participate in the study.

The participants’ pain threshold was assessed both before and after the video or show that they saw.  Throughout the video testing, how frequently a participant would laugh was recorded with a microphone.  Participants at a festival show were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding how much they laughed throughout the performance, ranking it on a 0-5 scale.

For the video study, two different methods were used to test a participant’s pain threshold.  Two of the six studies involved having participants wear a wine cooler sleeve at -16*C and seeing how long they could tolerate it. This method was quickly changed as researchers were concerned that the sleeves became less cold after the video showing.  Mercurial Sphygmomanometer cuffs were then used to test pain tolerance.  They decided that this inflatable cuff, similar to the cuff used to take blood pressure, gave less variable results and was therefore the more accurate of the two tests.

Participants who were at the stage performance were asked to lean against a wall with their legs bent at a 90 degree angle, as if they were sitting in a chair, and were asked to hold that pose until it became too painful for them to maintain.  Any participant who was pregnant, had a medical condition, was diabetic, or had drunk alcohol or smoked within the past two hours were excluded from the test.

The end result of the experiments was that the pain threshold of a person was significantly higher after having viewed a comedy compared to prior to watching the video.  Those who had watched a serious video or show had no change in their pain threshold.  Interestingly enough however, if an individual watched a funny video alone, their pain threshold would not increase; the threshold would only increase if the participant was watching a video in a group.

Participants that were shown a video that made them feel good but did not make them laugh showed no significant change in their pain threshold.  This led researchers to believe that one’s pain threshold would increase with laughter and that “feeling good” just wasn’t enough.

While the study does provide interesting results, the accuracy of the testing is questionable.  To have more accurate results, further studies and tests will need to be conducted, and by using more reliable measures.