What Are the Best Ways Laughing Can Benefit Senior Citizens?
What happens to your mood or body when you laugh? Do you often feel relaxed, happy, calm, or even elated? Does it help to relieve your stress or frustrations? There are so many benefits that laughter can have on a person. If you are caring for your elderly loved one, learning more about the benefits of laughter can improve their life.
Helping with Dementia
Home Care Services Philadelphia, PA: Benefits of Laughter
Research has shown that laughter can potentially help senior citizens that have dementia. In the studies that were done, nursing home patients with dementia saw a humor therapist. There were also patients who didn’t see the therapist. The patients who saw this therapist regularly had less agitation than those who didn’t attend therapy sessions. If your elderly loved one has dementia, making them laugh more often could help to reduce their agitation and make them feel happier. If you aren’t around enough, that’s not a problem. You can hire in-home care providers to make your elderly loved one laugh.
Benefits of Exercise
Did you know that a person’s body responds to continuous laughter the same way it does with exercise? Research shows that people who laugh over and over again in a short length of time have similar benefits to those they get from moderate exercise. These benefits include lowering cholesterol levels, lowering blood pressure, improving mood, reducing stress, and boosting the immune system. Between you and in-home care providers, you should be able to get your elderly loved one laughing at least a few times every week.
Treating Depression
When you are feeling depressed, it probably brings you down quite a bit. For many people, depression interferes with every part of their life. They may not want to socialize, get household chores done, take care of their personal hygiene, or take care of other responsibilities. If your elderly loved one is feeling depressed, laughter can help to relieve the depression. Once the depression lessens, your elderly loved one can start feeling happier.
Conclusion
If your elderly loved one needs to boost their mood, reduce depression, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, improve their immune system, or reduce agitation, laughing can help with all those things.
You and senior care providers should get your elderly loved one laughing at least a few times every week. Whether you are talking, showing them videos, telling them jokes, or having them watch comedy movies, all these things can get your elderly loved one laughing. The more your elderly loved one laughs, the more benefits they can reap from the laughter.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Home Care Services in Philadelphia, PA please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Sources
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6279721/
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
- How Home Health Providers Offer Education Amidst Physical Health Changes - March 5, 2024
- Spring Activities for Seniors - February 21, 2024
- How to Help an Older Loved One with Cataracts? - February 6, 2024