Abdominal muscles tense, breathing is difficult, and tears are streaming down my cheeks. Doesn't sound very nice.
In fact, this is just a fit of laughter, which you can have when, for example, you see a clown on the screen, or your girlfriend falls out of bed trying to reach the alarm button, or you are simply tickled well.
At such moments, you just use the phrase: "I'm dying with laughter!"
But is there some truth in these words? Is it possible to die of laughter, which usually feels like something pleasant (unless, of course, you take into account the pain in the stomach after 15 minutes of fun)?
Our reader Nana Lykke was interested in this question. And so she asked us: "Is it possible to die of laughter?"
The answer is not as simple as the question itself. Because some people may well die of laughter. But for this they should be very unlucky.
Laughter is useful
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Laughter is a physiological response to humor and anything funny, and it has two elements:
- physical actions;
- sound.
When we laugh, we activate a number of facial muscles, as well as some muscles in the body, especially the abdominals.
At the same time, many useful substances are released in the brain. Therefore, laughter makes us happy and harmonizes.
Scientists believe that laughter can be compared to sports training, because the pulse quickens and the muscles work.
Some studies even show that laughter has a healing effect on the body. For example, experiments by Japanese scientists in 2006 showed that in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, after a fit of laughter, the amount of certain toxins in the body decreased.
Death from laughter is unlikely
So laughing is very helpful. But we did ask two smart people to help us figure out if laughter could be harmful.
One of them is Søren Peter Olesen, professor in the Department of Heart and Vascular Research at the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Copenhagen.
“Ha ha ha! Can you die of laughter? I think yes. I saw it at Monty Python once, Soren Peter Ulesen replies to our question. As a joke, of course.
The second is Jesper Mehlsen. He is the chief physician and head of research at Fredericksburg Hospital, and is well-versed in the autonomic nervous system, which in many ways regulates what happens in the body when laughing.
Jesper Melsen amused our question too.
Both researchers are unanimous in the opinion that death from laughter is an unusual and rare phenomenon.
Fainting from Seinfeld and heart attack from Delicious
But fainting because of him is more likely to fall, adds Jesper Melsen.
“When you laugh, you hold your breath and the pressure in your chest and brain rises. This means that the outflow of blood to other organs decreases. Because of this, the body reflexively reacts so that the blood pressure is lowered. Thus, he seems to be trying to tell you: “Stop this disgrace and lie still.” If you don’t obey, you can lose consciousness,”says Jesper Melsen.
“There was a patient in a hospital in the United States who was nicknamed Seinfeld syncope, which means 'Seinfeld's fainting.' The patient was hospitalized twice because he passed out laughing while watching the television series Seinfeld,” says Jesper Melsen and continues.:
“And one elderly man from England died of a heart attack after laughing 25 minutes in a row at The Goodies. Then his widow wrote the creators of the series a letter in which she thanked them for the fact that her husband passed away in such a good mood."
Laughter can be a trigger
While both Søren Peter Ulesen and Jesper Melsen emphasize that death from laughter is very rare, they both confirm that laughter and physical ailments can sometimes be a deadly combination.
Laughter can provoke serious underlying health problems.
“There are certain hereditary heart diseases, the attacks of which can be triggered by physical and psychological stress, as well as emotional reactions. For example, laughter. But I haven’t heard of such cases yet,”says Søren Peter Ulesen.
In addition, people who have microaneurysms or large aneurysms (weak vessels or bulges in large veins and arteries) in the heart or brain could theoretically be harmed by laughing very hard. The increased pressure in the heart and brain can cause these vessels to burst and cause hemorrhage.
“But again, in reality I have not heard of this,” emphasizes Søren Peter Ulesen.
Convulsions like laughter
“I remember once reading about a type of brain inflammation that caused seizures that looked like a fit of laughing,” says Jesper Melsen and, quickly checking the information, elaborates:
“This inflammation of the brain is called kuru, and those who are ill with it look like madmen. The disease scared us a lot several decades ago. The kuru found among the cannibals of New Guinea caused unreasonable fits of laughter, and death followed. Something similar can sometimes be observed in various disorders of the central nervous system."
Who knows. Perhaps, with his story, Jesper Melsen gave us the answer where the expression "to die with laughter" came from.
Line Emilie Fedders