Can You Die From Laughter? How and When Is It Possible?

It is believed that laughter is good for the body. There is even an old saying that laughter is the best medicine. However, there are also reported cases of people who died from laughing too hard.

Bizarre Cases of Dying From Laughter

In 206 B.C., Greek philosopher Chrysippus was reported to have died laughing at his joke. According to stories, the Stoic philosopher saw a donkey eating his figs one day, so he told his slave to give the animal some wine to wash them down. Chrysippus ended up loving the joke too much and laughed too hard, resulting in death.

Another man named Pietro Aretino died from laughter in 1556. The Italian writer and dramatist died when his chair fell backward after laughing at a joke told by his sister. It was reported that the laughter caused an apoplexy attack, which killed him.

A similar case was reported in 1893 when a man named Wesley Parsons died after laughing at a joke for two hours without intermission. It is said that he was joking around with his friends when he caught the sound of laughter. Parsons continued laughing for about an hour before he started hiccupping. After two hours of laughing and hiccuping, the man died from exhaustion.

The most recent incident of death by laughter happened in 2013 in Mumbai. A man named Mangesh Bhogal died after watching a movie with his girlfriend. The movie theater director reported that Mangesh laughed very hard at the jokes when he got a stroke and finally lost control of his body.

Can A Person Die From Laughing Too Hard?

There are a few ways laughter can hurt the human body. In rare cases, a hearty chuckle can lead to "laughter-induced syncope," a condition where a person's blood pressure suddenly drops during exaggerated laughter. This triggers a heightened response from the autonomic nervous system and could lead to a temporary dip in the blood supply to the brain, resulting in loss of consciousness.

When a person laughs, their chest moves up and down. This motion changes the pressure in the thoracic cavity and affects the vagus nerve, which carries signals between the brain and most internal organs. It can cause a person to become lightheaded and pass out, especially when it is wildly exaggerated.

In other cases, laughter can affect the air supplied to the heart, lungs, and brain. For instance, high emotions like deep amusement can increase breathing rates and trigger flares of asthma. The unusual breathing can further exacerbate this due to laughter.

Laughter can also trigger asphyxiation or laryngospasm, a sudden spasm of the vocal cords when a person does not receive enough oxygen between laughs. However, the chances of these causes of death are slim, according to cardiologist Dr. Megan Kamath from UCLA Health. She further adds that while there are reported cases of deaths from laughter caused by asphyxiation or cardiac arrest, it remains an unlikely cause of death for healthy people.

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