Laughter may be better for dry eyes than eye drops: study

Dry eye disease is no laughing matter – or is it?

More than 360 million people worldwide suffer from chronically red, scratchy or irritated eyes, a condition that can worsen with stress. Researchers in China and the UK believe they may have found an unusual solution that doesn’t involve eye drops – laughter.

“As a safe, environmentally friendly, and low-cost intervention, laughter exercise may serve as a first-line, at-home treatment for people with symptomatic dry eye disease,” said the authors of a study in published Wednesday in the BMJ.

The researchers were inspired by evidence suggesting that laughter therapy relieves depression, anxiety and chronic pain by strengthening the immune system. Laughter has been shown to lower stress hormones, activate immune cells and increase infection-fighting antibodies.

For this study, 283 patients with dry eye disease were randomly assigned to either laughing exercises or 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid eye drops.

The laughter exercise group was tasked with watching an instructional video and repeating the phrases “Hee hee hee, hah hah hah, cheese cheese cheese, cheek cheek, hah hah hah hah hah hah hah” 30 times in five minutes four times in day. They used an app to improve their facial movements.

Meanwhile, the other group applied 0.1% hyaluronic acid eye drops to both eyes four times a day, following the process with the same application.

Both treatments were stopped at eight weeks—researchers observed changes in eye discomfort at the 10- and 12-week marks.

They determined that the laughing exercise appeared to be as effective as the eye drops and more beneficial for some eye functions and the participant’s mental health.

“Laughter exercise may alleviate dry eye disease indirectly by creating an ongoing positive lifestyle effect,” the researchers wrote in their findings.

There were several limitations to the study, including potential bias because participants knew the treatment they received. Plus, practicing laughing takes more time than applying eye drops.

The researchers say that future studies should evaluate how long and how often the laughter exercises should be done for maximum success.

Dr. Matthew Gorski, a Northwell Health ophthalmologist, called the study’s findings “interesting,” but said they shouldn’t be taken at face value.

“Laughter exercises would certainly be an innovative and fun way to treat dry eye syndrome,” Gorski, who was not involved in the research, told The Post. “Final conclusions and recommendations for patients should not necessarily be made based on these results. Additional research studies are needed to confirm the results.”