“It was so funny I thought I was going to die laughing”, ” I almost died from laughing so hard.” Did you ever say these words. I have. But, can you really die? Just from laughing. Well it seems the likely hood of this occuring is rare but not impossible.
According to Dr. Martin Samuels, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, blacking out while laughing may be related to over-breathing, and is probably not too dangerous.
“This is most likely benign and unlikely that it would lead to death,” he says.
But that doesn’t mean death doesn’t sometimes wear a smile. In the third century B.C., the Greek philosopher Chrysippus was said to have died laughing after getting his donkey drunk on wine. More recently, a Danish audiologist died laughing in 1989 while watching “A Fish Called Wanda.” (It’s also the subject of an old Monty Python sketch, in which a writer pens the “funniest joke in the world” — and immediately dies.)
“Happy news is just as dangerous as sad news with regard to the risk of sudden death,” he says. “I have cases of people who died after hitting holes in one, after bowling perfect 300 games and upon hearing the words ‘Not Guilty.’ Death during sexual activity is also well known. Ecstasy, happiness and good news are definitely risky.”
So this tells me that sadness and happiness can be life threatening…OK, I will take ‘Death by Laughter’.