Talk:Laughter-induced syncope

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I removed this from the article for obvious reasons:

Anecdotal evidence suggests that this may be much more widespread than the literature suggests and therefore worthy of additional investigation. One such case involves Ray Capitol (not real name) who in December 2006, during a viewing of “Strangers With Candy” [1] starring Amy Sedaris [2] was sent into a laughing fit which would culminate in an episode of laughing syncope. At the onset of the laughing fit subject stood and moved into his kitchen area in a futile attempt to regain composure. While standing with hands on kitchen counter subject experienced Laughter Syncope causing mail to be flung over his head. When the subject was found in a prone position by his spouse she reports he did not respond to any stimulus, but did have a “shit-eating” grin on his face. Upon regaining consciousness subject was relieved to find he had maintained bladder and bowel control. Subject did not experience any short or long term memory loss, disorientation, nor did he sustain any injuries as a result of the fall. He did note however that serious injury could have resulted had he been holding scissors, knife, loaded and cocked weapon, unsheathed samurai sword or while driving or operating heavy machinery.

I am sorry, but even I can recognize a joke article when I see it. While there is such a thing as Laughter-induced Syncope, it is never called "Seinfeld Syncope". --Bill W. Smith, Jr. 23:08, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, I was wrong. It just goes to prove that even doctors and scientists have a sense of humor. --Bill W. Smith, Jr. 16:45, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I've experienced this first hand.

Its actually not that funny. Around 1999, we were over at a friends house playing board games, something like Trivial Persuit, etc. We kept getting these easy questions, and the opposing team had this series of absolutely imponderables, ending with a question about the native habitat for chinchillas. I found this to be so funny, for whatever reason, that I started laughing and could not stop. After about 20 seconds, I apparently lost consciousness ( I don't remmebr that part ) and fell out of may chair and remained non responsive for about 30 second. When I woke up I was on the floor and everyone was hovering over me. They though I was kidding at first, but soon reallized I was out cold.

So on Monday I ended up at the doctors office and they ran a bunch of tests and initially they believed it to be an episode of vasovagal syncope. But after two cardiologists and more tests they concluded it was laughter induced syncope wherein the pressure of the lungs / diaphram during prolonged periods of intense laughter essentially compresses the heart slowing the heartbeat while simultaneously increasing arterial and venous pressure. Or as one of the cardiologists put it, mechanically inducing something akin to the Bezold-Jarisch reflex.

So that's my anectdotal story. FWIW.

-- Bob (talk) 20:04, 14 April 2008 (UTC)