Patients In Melbourne Dialysis Center Feel Great With Laughter

The Moorabbin dialysis center in Melbourne recently conducted a month long trial of Laughter Yoga sessions to see how it benefits patients suffering from kidney failure and undergoing dialysis. The results reaffirmed the efficacy of Laughter Yoga as it definitely improved their mood, their health and wellbeing. The patients were in good spirits in a half-hour class as they ran through the exercises between chants and clapped from their dialysis chairs.

Laughter yoga therapist Merv Neal said that the class triggered the mind into thinking the body is having a good time, so it helps to release the happy hormones and laughter becomes real. “It is very much an aerobic workout, too; it gets the blood pumping and oxygen circulating," he added.

Patients attend the centre three times a week for five-hour dialysis sessions and those participating in the trial did Laughter Yoga at two of those sessions. The researchers measured the patients' mood, anxiety levels, blood pressure and lung function before and after their first Laughter Yoga session, and before and after their final session, as part of the month-long trial. Though the results are yet to be analyzed, Mr. Neal said the sessions had provided joy and a sense of community to the centre for both patients and staff.