BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - MOST of us have heard and many do believe in the saying that laughter is the best medicine. But though this may be true, like any other medicine, laugher has its side effects of which some can even be fatal.
According to a report in the Christmas edition of British Medical Journal (BMJ), laughter is no joke - dangers include syncope, cardiac and oesophageal rupture, and protrusion of abdominal hernias, asthma attacks, interlobular emphysema, cataplexy, headaches, jaw dislocation and stress incontinence.
Robin Ferner, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of Birmingham, UK, stated that this was the first serious look at laughter since the 19th century and revealed that "most of the time it makes people happy, but every now and again it kills them".
Robin Ferner and his colleague Jeff Aronson researched nearly 800 studies on laughter dating back to 1946.
Ferner stated: "We are clinical pharmacologists who spend our days worrying about the benefits and harms of medicines. We thought we might look elsewhere, and laughter - 'the best medicine' - seemed a worthy candidate."
He added that though it has many benefits, including increasing fertility, and though it makes one feels better it does not make one actually better.
"In truth, that many good studies of the benefits of laughter seem to be assumed that because we feel better when we laugh, we are better. In the rarest of circumstances, a good laugh can be harmful, but for most of us most of the time, there are few dangers; it may make us feel better; and it could make us—well, our women—pregnant."
Ferner stated that too much laughter could even be fatal in rare circumstances, noting that the BMJ's last serious look at laughter in 1899 came on the heels of a case where a 13-year-old girl died of heart failure after prolonged uncontrollable laughter.
“Such incidents are extremely rare.”
During research, they stumbled upon modern day instances of people who died laughing.
One of a woman, who had racing heart syndrome, collapsed and died after a prolonged period of intense laughter.
Their research also found out that respiratory side effects of laughter include inhaling foreign objects and occasionally the triggering of an asthma attack.
They claimed that laughter could cause incontinence and dislocate a jaw. It could make a hernia protrude, "aiding diagnosis in children—rapture unmasking rupture. By contrast, failure to laugh is an important sign of intra-abdominal infection in children".
The psychological side effects of laughter show that it could weaken resolve and promote brand preference.
"Like many pleasurable things, including ice cream, chocolate, and sex
may precipitate headaches,” they noted.
The researchers also highlighted the benefits of laughter which discovered that it could be a great calorie burner and thus a fun way to lose weight. Fifteen minutes of laughing could burn 40 calories, or 2,000 calories for a whole day of merriment.
Among diabetics it was found that the effects of watching a comedy show, as opposed to listening to a monotonous lecture, slowed the increase in glucose after a meal.
It was also claimed that joyfulness could also lead to increase fertility in women.
"A clown, dressed as a chef de cuisine, entertained would-be mothers for 12-15 minutes after in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer. His saucy jokes were a recipe for success—the pregnancy rate was 36 percent in those whom he entertained compared with 20 percent in the controls," the study says.
Other benefits of laughter include reduced anger, anxiety, depression, and stress.
In this the season to be jolly, it is important that one is wary of the health hazards of laughter and not to overdose on what is often described as the best medicine.
