Experience Pain Management with Laughter

We all know that undergoing surgery causes pain. That’s why the use of anesthetic is allowed. The patient is able to avoid pain during surgery. After surgery, power pain killers are needed to alleviate pain during the recovery period.

However, there are downsides accompanied with the use of anesthetics and pain killers since they are loaded with undesirable side effects.  This is why numerous studies on pain management are continuously being conducted in an effort to reduce or minimize the use of anesthetics and to speed up post-operative recovery with the least amount of pain.

These studies are directed towards the development of new and alternative pain management techniques of reducing or relieving pain. The research involves revisiting some of the best-known tried and tested remedies and finding out how and, more importantly, why they work. With the aid of new ways to manage pain during surgery, an anesthesiologist will be able to give patients less doses of anesthesia, minimizing its side effects and enabling the patient to fully recover faster.

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A look into the old saying, "laughter is the best medicine" revealed that there is actually a lot of truth behind it. An experiment established that the degree of pain felt by persons is greatly reduced by laughter. In the experiment, a number of children were made to watch a funny video before, during, and after putting their arms in icy cold water. Those who laughed before the experiment experienced significantly less discomfort when they put their arms in the freezing water. Others who watched the video and laughed during the experiment were able to withstand the cold water for a longer time. Is there any scientific explanation to this experiment?

Yes, in fact, the experiment showed that laughter prevented or inhibited the release of cortisol, a stress hormone that contributes to the sensation of pain. Though a much more in-depth study into these findings will be needed to fully understand the relationship between laughter and stress and the link between laughter and pain, persons who are suffering from pain need not wait before starting to laugh a lot more. After all, laughter, unlike other medicines, has definitely no overdose and no negative side effects. Surely, it won't be long before we start seeing more funny videos being shown in operating rooms and hospital rooms as a form of pain management.

Another procedure that researchers are looking into is the use of pain killers before surgery. Studies show that taking pain killers before a person undergoes surgery reduces the amount of anesthetic needed by the patient during the operation itself. The scientific explanation lies on the fact that any trauma such as an incision on the human body creates an involuntary response as part of its natural pain defense mechanism. So even if the person is sedated, the brain continues to send signals to the nerve endings. Nerve endings on the incised part swell and surgery becomes even more painful, thus, the need for a large dose of anesthetics during surgery.