Michael Douglas: Laughs Help in Cancer Battle

(Sept. 1) -- Only days after announcing that he has throat cancer, actor Michael Douglas is making headlines again -- this time for his remarkable optimism in discussing the late-stage illness on "Late Show With David Letterman."

Of course, the star's air of assurance may have been spurred by the spotlight. But Douglas' upbeat approach also has scientific backing, with myriad studies indicating that humor and positivity can have profound psychological effects for cancer patients and their families. And that, experts think, might even boost odds of remission and long-term recovery.

"It's going to cut into the foreign promotional tour" for his new movie, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," Douglas joked of the illness, which had progressed to Stage 4 before being caught by doctors earlier this summer. "I just wanted to see how far I'd go to promote a movie."

Douglas, 65, told Letterman his odds of survival were around 80 percent. And although he just finished his first week of radiation and chemotherapy, which "knocks you out, really hard," the actor looked tanned and rested.

Humor Therapy: Scientifically Proven Stress Relief

Putting on a brave face might be easier for performers, but making an effort at humor can help alleviate the stress caused by a cancer diagnosis.

The American Cancer Society even endorses "humor therapy," which can be passive (watching funny movies) or spontaneous (an effort to use humor in daily life, for example).

Hospitals and cancer treatment centers also have special areas geared toward laughter or bring in volunteers to provide patients with comedic relief, according to the ACS.

"The session makes you feel better," Luz Rodriguez, a breast cancer patient, told The Associated Press, speaking of the humor program at Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center in New York. "I feel healthy when I laugh."

Humor and laughter have many known physical benefits, including the reduction of stress hormones and even increased pain tolerance -- a major benefit for those undergoing grueling radiation or chemotherapy. But can jokes actually quell tumors? So far, science says no. Studies have yet to link humor or laughter with the capacity to actually treat cancer tumors, though they has been shown to bolster immunity and promote blood flow.

Still, the dearth of medical evidence isn't stopping cancer patients and survivors from publishing books, starting blogs and joining Web communities devoted to the plus sides of positivity.

"Our focus here is dragging cancer from that dark and gloomy corner of our minds it has long occupied, out into the open, where we are free [to] expose it as the lawless little ingrate that it is and to beat the s--t out of it with humor and positive energy, " reads a disclaimer at the website Cancer Is Not Funny.

And if anecdotal evidence is any testament, humor is a powerful tool in one's anti-cancer arsenal. Personal cancer humor blogs, written as joke-laden diary entries on chemo, hospital visits and medical tests, abound on the Web.

"I'm sitting in the chair at my oncology office with a needle hanging out of my port!" writes blogger Ryan Armbrust at his blog, I Made Cancer My Bitch. "Good times!"

The Downsides to Cancer Chortles

Humor can be a helpful approach in any trying situation, illness included. But when issues of life and death are salient, experts warn that jokes can also be a dangerous avoidance tactic.

And, of course, some cancer diagnoses are so shocking, or devastating, that patients can't seem to find the bright side.

At one "Comedy for Cancer" show in Brooklyn, N.Y., a female patient had to leave early because the humor was "just too much," according to a 2009 Newsweek piece.

For Douglas, however, and thousands of other devotees of humor therapy, laughter is one effective way to cope with the uncertainty of a life-and-death illness.

Asked by Letterman if doctors had caught his Stage 4 cancer soon enough to save him, Douglas couldn't offer a yes or no answer. Instead, he offered a shrug and a smile, quipping: "I sure as s--t hope so."