In March 1975, a 50-year-old man sat down on his chair to watch one of his favorite shows. It was a British comedy series called The Goodies, and the man in question, Alex Mitchell, found the show very funny. On that fateful day, the bricklayer laughed really hard as he watched a funny bit of the show. And by really hard, I mean really hard. Mitchell laughed for over twenty minutes. All of a sudden, he slumped into his chair, lifeless. He died then and there.
According to a doctor (probably the one who examined him), Mitchell died from too much laughter. He laughed so hard that "the left side of his heart failed."
But could it really be true? Could a person really die from laughing too much?
Fortunately, the answer is no. However, laughing too hard may trigger something bad in your body, especially if you have a preexisting condition. This is the deadly part.
If you have a cardiovascular condition, like an aortic aneurysm, for example, laughing could increase the pressure inside your thorax, and that might trigger a heart attack.
Laughing too hard has some other undesirable effects on the body, such as blocking the flow of oxygen.
Alex Mitchell's death in 1975 made headlines worldwide. Doctors back then cited "heart failure" as the cause of his death, but doctors in 2012 believe he was suffering from a conduction disorder called the Long QT syndrome, as his granddaughter was diagnosed with the same condition.
They say that laughter is the best medicine. It seems that, like with anything, it is best taken in moderation.
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