BY GEORGE NAVA TRUE II
THEY SAY that laughter is the best medicine, but too much laughter can be fatal as history shows. Often, this is caused by cardiac arrest or asphyxiation (lack of oxygen in the body due to abnormal breathing). Below are a few examples of people who died laughing.
Zeuxis was an innovative Greek painter who was popular during the 5th century BC. Born in what is now called Italy, his works were known for their realism and novel subjects.
When he was commissioned to paint Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, Zeus was amused at his work since it was based on an old woman who insisted on being his model. He died laughing because of this.
More deaths from laughing
Chrysippus was the third century BC Greek Stoic philosopher. He moved to Athens as a young man and became the third head of the Stoic school there. He was a prolific writer who excelled in logic, ethics, and physics.
According to Diogenes Laërtius, a biographer of Greek philosophers, Chrysippus saw a donkey eating figs and exclaimed that the animal needed wine to wash the fruits down. He burst into laughter and died afterward at the age of 73.
The reign of King Martin of Aragon, also known as Martin the Humane, was marked by peace since he successfully stopped troubles caused by nobles, factions, and bandits. But he died in 1410 at the age of 53 supposedly after laughing at a joke told by the court jester, Borra.
While watching an episode of the British comedy series, The Goodies, Alex Mitchell of England laughed continuously for 25 minutes and died from heart failure on March 24, 1975. The Daily Mail said his widow later thanked the people behind the show for making Alexâs final moments pleasant.
Kuru is a fatal brain disorder
However, these examples are not as bad as the epidemic that struck the Fore people of Papua, New Guinea. This is where the fatal brain disorder called kuru was discovered which caused the deaths of about a thousand people from 1957 to 1960.
Kuru is named after the Fore word for âtremblingâ or âshiver.â It is also called the âlaughing sicknessâ because its victims laugh from time to time. Thatâs the reason villagers referred to patients as ânegi-nagiâ which means a foolish person.
At first, the Fore people thought that the disease was caused by sorcery or witchcraft. Ghosts were also implicated by the villagers since victims acted strangely. To help patients, they would give them pork and casuarinas bark.
Kuru is a prion disease
This rare disorder belongs to a class of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases. Other similar diseases include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a fatal degenerative brain disorder) in humans, mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), and chronic wasting disease or zombie disease in deer and elk (see Panay News Jan. 19, 2021 issue).
TSEs are characterized by prions or misshapen protein molecules that clump together in brain tissue. Prions can change shape and cause other similar proteins to do the same. These renegade proteins create holes in the brain so it looks like Swiss cheese.
The US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) said kuru has a long incubation period like other TSEs. Years or decades pass before symptoms appear in an infected person.
Stages of kuru
In the first or ambulant stage of the disease, the victim can still walk around despite symptoms. These include an unsteady stance and gait, decreased muscle control, tremors, and difficulty pronouncing words or dysarthria.
In the second or sedentary stage, the infected individual canât walk without help and suffers ataxia (lack of muscle control) and severe tremors. At this point, the patient becomes emotionally unstable and depressed but has uncontrolled laughter.
In the final or terminal stage, the infected individual canât sit without support. The patient has dysphagia (swallowing difficulties), which can lead to severe malnutrition, and he canât control urination or defecation. Later he loses the ability to speak and doesnât respond to his surroundings, but he is still conscious. Death follows in three months to two years because of pneumonia or other secondary infections.
Cannibalism helped spread kuru
Kuru quickly spread because the Fore people practiced ritualistic or funerary cannibalism, according to medical researchers Michael Alpers and Shirley Lindenbaum who studied the disease in 1961. They learned that after burying the dead, the villagers would exhume the body when it was full of maggots. The corpse was dismembered and eaten together with the maggots.
Alpers and Lindenbaum added that women and children were the usual victims of kuru since they ate the tissues and brains of deceased family members which were rich in prion particles. They believed this would free the spirit of the dead and was their way of mourning and showing respect to the deceased. This same group was easily infected because they also cleaned relatives after death and probably had open cuts and sores on their hands.
The two researchers said the epidemic probably started around 1900 when villagers ate the brain of a dead person who had CreutzfeldtâJakob disease. When they got sick and died too, they spread the disease to other people who ate them.
End of kuru epidemic
When the government intervened and discouraged cannibalism, the Fore people stopped eating human meat in the early 1960s, but kuru continued to affect the villagers because of its long incubation period.
The incubation period is the time it takes for symptoms to appear. In kuru, thatâs usually 10 to 13 years after being infected. In others, that can take 50 years or longer.
There is no cure for kuru and death usually occurs within one year after the symptoms appear. Fortunately, researchers said the last known victim died either in 2005 or 2009 and kuru hasnât affected anyone since then.
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National Press Club and Philippine Dental Association awardee George N. True II has written two bestsellers based on his popular column that has been running for almost 40 years. For questions about health, email georgenavatrue@yahoo.com./PN
