Laugh Therapy - Recap

Nimoy starts the episode by showing different placebos or experiments over the course of history that seem to have help people in need. He shows one man in India having his wrists burned and then bandaged as part of his therapy. He then tells the viewer that in the turn of the century a strange device that emitted a blue spark was used to cure people. A man named Dr. AK Shapiro is interviewed and explains the placebo effect (something that has no medical basis yet helps people). Dr. Shapiro shows his bizarre collection of placebos to the viewer everything from unicorn corns to leeches he has collected.

Then the subject of laugh therapy comes in and Shapiro talks about it.
The issue if biofeedback is briefly talked about in interviews with a man named Dr. Freeman. They also make the question that biofeedback is a placebo.

An author named Norman Cousins is interviewed and says that laugh therapy played a part in him getting better when he was diagnosed with a disease. However, he does say positive thinking also helped him. Another man, Dr. William Fry, is shown doing experimental laugh therapy on himself. Comedians Carl Reiner and Steve Allen are interviewed about the benefits of laughter. While they can’t come up with actual evidence, they relate the benefits of laughing in terms of relieving stress, and pain.

Comedian Geri Jewell who cerebral palsy also gives input of the affects of laugh therapy.
Another man is interviewed though and the man says the placebo effect is more based on psychology that is that since people believe the thing they will use will help them then it will.

In the end, Nimoy sums up Laugh Therapy as something that can be beneficial to people but requires more intensive study.


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