Laughter therapy can help people with COPD breathe more easily

edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan

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Add as preferred source Laughter therapy. Credit: Goncagul Aldan / European Respiratory Society A clinical trial for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) shows that laughter therapy can reduce breathing difficulties and is as effective as more traditional breathing exercises. The research was presented at the European Respiratory Society ( ERS ) Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

In the trial, patients were taught how to use deliberate laughter as a breathing exercise. This was directly compared with patients using traditional breathing exercises and a control group that did not do any breathing exercises.