Be careful how hard you laugh at some of this summer’s blockbuster comedies. "Bridesmaids," "Horrible Bosses" or "The Hangover" sequel could just be the death of you.

“Years ago, I went to see 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' with a friend and I thought I was going to die laughing,” says Jim Dailakis, a 41-year-old comedian from Queens, N.Y. “We had this brutal karate instructor who looked just like this little golden head that Harrison Ford holds up at one point. I saw that head and started howling like a girl. And then I couldn’t catch my breath and had to think of something else so I wouldn’t pass out.”

Dailakis, who says he’s usually goaded into uncontrollable laughing fits by his buddies, says he’s actually blacked out laughing over the years.

“The first time it happened, I thought I was going to die,” he says. “I was on my knees laughing, and then suddenly I couldn’t breathe. It was scary and freaky but I couldn’t stop laughing. And then I began to weep uncontrollably and I thought that was so hilarious, I went into another manic fit of laughter. My friend was laughing so hard, he had to leave the room.”

After that, Dailakis saw stars -- then passed out.

“The next thing I knew, I was lying down and looking up,” he says. “And I could still hear my friend laughing in the next room.”

According to Dr. Martin Samuels, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, blacking out while laughing may be related to over-breathing, and is probably not too dangerous.

“This is most likely benign and unlikely that it would lead to death,” he says.

But that doesn’t mean death doesn’t sometimes wear a smile. In the third century B.C., the Greek philosopher Chrysippus was said to have died laughing after getting his donkey drunk on wine. More recently, a Danish audiologist died laughing in 1989 while watching "A Fish Called Wanda." (It's also the subject of an old Monty Python sketch, in which a writer pens the "funniest joke in the world" -- and immediately dies.)

“Happy news is just as dangerous as sad news with regard to the risk of sudden death,” he says. “I have cases of people who died after hitting holes in one, after bowling perfect 300 games and upon hearing the words ‘Not Guilty.’ Death during sexual activity is also well known. Ecstasy, happiness and good news are definitely risky.”

Why would good news or happy circumstances put us at risk?  It’s all about that old fight-or-flight response, he says.

“Extreme excitement, whether that be sadness or happiness activates the part of the brain that’s responsible for the flight or fight response to threats in the wild,” he says. “This releases a natural chemical -- adrenaline -- which in large animals can be toxic to various organs, in particular the heart.”

As a result, extremely strong emotional states -- whether positive or negative -- can be harmful to the heart, on rare occasions causing an abnormal rhythm which can be lethal.

Dailakis says his laughter blackouts used to bother him, but now that he knows what to expect, he’s not worried.

“Afterward, I feel exhausted but so alive,” he says. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. Why should I go to a doctor? It’s obviously a natural thing. It would be like telling the doctor, ‘I get turned on really easily. Can you stop that?’”

When's the last time you laughed so hard you couldn't catch your breath? What happened? Leave a comment telling us about it.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

featurepics.com

Used woodwind or brass instruments can house some serious germs. How often does your kid clean his or hers?

Sour notes may not be the only thing emanating from your child’s squeaky clarinet or honking trombone, according to a new study just published in General Dentistry. Used woodwinds and brass instruments are also contaminated with enough bacteria and fungi to bring on everything from food poisoning to brain abscesses.

Researchers took cultures from 13 high school band instruments, all from a small, rural town in northeastern Oklahoma, explains lead author Dr. Tom Glass, professor of forensic sciences, pathology and dental medicine and adjunct professor of microbiology at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa.

“We swabbed the instruments from the mouthpiece end all the way to the bell and we also collected what was expelled from the bell and looked at the instrument cases,” he says. “And we were absolutely shocked by the results.”

A total of 442 different bacteria were taken from 117 different sites on the instruments (which consisted of two clarinets, two oboes, two saxophones, two mellophones, two trombones, two trumpets, and one cornet).

Many of the bacteria were species of Staphylococcus, which can cause staph infections. In addition, 58 molds and 19 yeasts were identified.

“We found that the instrument was basically acting as a reservoir for these germs and had the potential to infect the individual who was playing it,” he says. “What was also disturbing is that some of the instruments hadn’t been played for several months but they had the same group of germs. These germs have a very long shelf life.”

Some of the most commonly found bacteria in the study included Brevibacterium (found in 11 instruments) which can cause corneal infections, food poisoning and endophthalmitis (an inflammation of the internal coats of the eye which can cause loss of vision). Kocuria varians, which causes brain abscess (among other things), was found in nine of the swabbed instruments.

“There are good germs and bad germs, but many of these have the potential to be bad,” says Glass, who for the last 30 years has researched disease-producing germs lurking in common objects such as toothbrushes, dentures, athletic mouth guards and pacifiers. “They have the potential to produce infectious diseases as well as respiratory diseases such as asthma.”

Glass says without proper cleaning, many used musical instruments are basically carriers, passing germs from one person to the next. Unfortunately, the kids who play these borrowed instruments are especially vulnerable, because, he says, “their immune systems aren’t as well-developed as adults.”

“The instruments are sort of like Typhoid Mary,” he says. “They get passed along to one after the other. Our intent is not to prevent people from playing band instruments, but to factor this into the whole perspective of the disease process.  People need to ask the question, ‘Do you play a band instrument?’ ‘How long has it been since you’ve cleaned your band instrument?’”

The good news? Breaking down the instrument and wiping all its surfaces once a week can cut back on the germs. But it only decreases the number of germs to an “acceptable level,” says Glass. To completely eradicate the nasty bugs, the instrument needs to be sterilized in a bath of ethylene oxide.

As for other instruments such as drums, guitars, violins, or accordions, Glass says people don’t have to be concerned (at least not in regard to germs).

“A piano is safer,” he says. “It’s the instruments around your mouth. That’s where you have trouble.”

Find The Body Odd on Twitter (@bodyodd) and Facebook (facebook.com/bodyodd).

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

In addition to making you walk funny and drop your keys five or six times while trying to get inside your house, a full bladder may actually do something useful: help you make better decisions.

According to an upcoming study in Psychological Science, researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands performed experiments on more than 500 college students to determine if the inhibitory signals sent to a full bladder would “spill over” into other inhibitory responses, such as holding out for a larger monetary reward rather than going with a smaller immediate one.

According to lead author Mirjam Tuk, researchers had test subjects drink either five cups of water or sip a bit from each cup. After about 40 minutes -- the amount of time it takes for the water to reach the bladder -- the subjects were asked to participate in a choice test.

“We asked them to choose between a small, but soon-to-be-received reward or a large but later-to-be-received award, e.g., $18 tomorrow or $30 in 25 days,” says Tuk in an e-mail interview. “The number of times respondents opted for a later but larger reward was higher for people who experienced high bladder pressure.”

TODAY video: Kathie Lee and Hoda know when to go

Subjects also participated in other tests that seemed to indicate a full bladder helped with impulse control.

“These findings seem to suggest that people possess a general inhibition system,” Tuk writes in her paper. “The inhibition of various behaviors (motor and cognitive) seems to have its origin in the same neural area. Once inhibitory signals are sent, they are not completely bound to the focal task requiring inhibition, but spill over to other domains.”

What does this mean for those of us in the real world, especially that part of the world where there are no public restrooms?

Tuk says since people make better decisions when they have a full bladder, they may want to drink a bottle of water before making a decision about their stock portfolio (or that big-screen TV).

“This is of course a generalization of experimental evidence, but any type of financial decision-making might benefit from increased bladder control,” she says. “People might be more likely to invest money in retirement funds instead of spending it on more short-term benefits, for example.”

Interestingly, Tuk says that if the inhibitory signal is less present -- i.e., if you don’t have to go potty -- then there will be less inhibitory spillover. In other words, if you’ve already gone to see that man about a horse, you may have a tendency to make more impulsive and unwise decisions.

We’re betting extra bathrooms may become a number one priority in retail outlets soon. What do you think?

Find The Body Odd on Twitter (@bodyodd) and Facebook (facebook.com/bodyodd).  

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

Most of us get a little excited when we see a big spider, but for the unfortunate few who fall victim to the bite of the daunting Brazilian wandering spider, that “excitement” takes on a whole new meaning: The venom of the wandering spider -- also known as the banana spider (or more formally Phoneutria nigriventer) causes erections in men.

“The venom of the P. nigriventer spider is a very rich mixture of several molecules,” says Dr. Kenia Nunes, a physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia who is currently studying the odd side effect. “These molecules are called toxins, and then we have various toxins in this venom with different activity. Because of this, when a human is bitten by this spider, we can observe many different symptoms including priapism, a condition in which the penis is continually erect.”

In addition to the hours-long painful erection, the wandering spider’s bite can cause loss of muscle control, severe pain, difficulty breathing and, if not treated, death, due to oxygen deprivation (with anti-venom, the victim usually recovers within a week.)

Luckily, deaths from this impressive creature – it boasts a leg span of four to five inches – aren’t all that common. According to a website maintained by Rod Crawford, curator of arachnids at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, “authoritative sources state that over 7,000 authentic cases of human bites from these spiders have been recorded, with only around 10 known deaths.”

Usually found on banana plantations in the tropics, wandering spiders do tend to, uh, wander, though, with recent sightings reported at a Whole Foods in Tulsa, Oklahoma and an IGA store in Russell, Manitoba and a biting reported in Somerset, England in 2005.

But while the spider’s bite may be painful – or even deadly -- its oddball venom may actually prove to be a valuable asset when it comes to treating erectile dysfunction in men.

“In Brazil, we have several reports of human accidents involving this spider and priapism as a symptom,” says Nunes, who recently published a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine on the spider venom and its potential use in treating ED. “So we started to investigate which part of the venom – which toxin – would be responsible for this symptom. We found the toxin responsible and performed experiments using hypertensive rats which have severe erectile dysfunction. The toxin was able to normalize the erectile function in these animals.”

After isolating the toxin (known as PnTx2-6), Nunes and her colleagues then studied the mechanism of action and found that the toxin acts in a different pathway as compared with other erectile dysfunction drugs, such as Viagra.

“This is good because we know that some patients don’t respond to the conventional therapy,” she says. “This could be an optional treatment for them.”       

 Does the Brazilian wandering spider venom hold any potential benefits for sexually dysfunctional women?

 Nunes says she hasn’t performed any experiments “to investigate the action of this toxin in females yet,” but she intends to do it “soon.”

Find The Body Odd on Twitter and Facebook.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

Some people swear by bacon. Or Red Bull. Or a big bacon cheeseburger with fries -- the greasier the better.  

Thanks to new research out of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, though, we now know the exact cause of the hangover headache and the Absolut … er … absolute best way to get rid of them. (And no, it’s not a hair of the dog that bit you.)

Turns out, the scientifically-proven best hangover cure may be plain old coffee and aspirin.

As Dr. Michael L. Oshinsky explains, alcohol in the body is metabolized to acetaldehyde, and then to acetate. “The dogma has always been that acetaldehyde causes the headache because it’s poisonous,” says Oshinsky, assistant professor for the department of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University. “But there’s been no direct evidence to demonstrate that.”

So Oshinsky and his colleagues decided to investigate what actually causes hangover headaches -- by throwing a series of parties for their lab rats.

“We used 190 proof, medical proof alcohol and gave them the equivalent of one shot,” says Oshinsky, director of preclinical research at the Jefferson Headache Center. “It was like drinking one beer or one mixed drink or one glass of wine. It was a very small amount of alcohol – we just gave it to them in a pure form.”

In order to pinpoint the exact cause of the hangover headache, the researchers separated the strings of the alcohol metabolism process.

The first step was to block the breakdown of the alcohol, but that didn’t have an effect, i.e., the rats continued to party, headache-free. Then they blocked the breakdown of the acetaldehyde by giving the rats antabuse, the drug given to chronic alcoholics. (Antabuse prevents the breakdown of acetaldehyde to acetate, which causes shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting and other unpleasant side effects.)

“The rats didn’t get a headache,” he says, explaining that they do sensory testing around the head and face of the animal to detect the presence of a headache. “Although there was a decrease in the analgesic response. We couldn’t tell if they were nauseous, though. Rats don’t throw up.”

Finally the researchers shot the rats full of acetate, the final step in the alcohol metabolism chain.

“Sure enough, they got a headache,” says Oshinsky. “Then we gave them a higher dose and they got more of headache for a longer amount of time.”

Oshinsky says their research disproved other commonly held beliefs such as hangover headaches are caused by dehydration or congeners, substances produced during fermentation that are responsible for the taste, aroma and color of the alcohol.

Once the source of the hangover headache was located, the researchers then set about figuring out how to get rid of the pesky things, using known headache blockers. Turns out the combination of caffeine and over-the-counter inflammatory drugs (i.e., NSAIDs – things like aspirin and ibuprofen) were best at blocking the head-pounding effects of the acetate.

Although as with everything, timing is crucial.

“If you drink a small amount of alcohol, three or four hours later, drink some coffee,” he says. “Or take caffeine in some form, like an Excedrin that has caffeine in it. If you take the caffeine at the same time as you drink, it will be gone when the acetate levels are high.”

As for those greasy hamburgers, he says, they’re definitely not the way to go.

“I don’t see what the mechanism for that would be,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to take an NSAID with a cup of coffee or tea.”

Marina Frykholm says the caffeine and aspirin route sounds feasible, but she’d rather stick with her tried and true hangover cure -- frozen mango.

“I lay flat on my back and put part of a frozen bag of mangos on my forehead,” says the 29-year-old TV advertising/promotions associate from Seattle. “And I only move to put partially defrosting chunks of mango in my mouth.”

You can find The Body Odd on Twitter and Facebook.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

Here at Body Odd, we thought we’d heard it all when it comes to strange spa treatments. But that was before we heard about the latest trend to hit the Manhattan/Southern California spa circuit: vaginal steam baths.

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, chai-yok (not to be confused with bok-choy, also good steamed) is a “centuries-old Korean remedy that is gaining a toehold in the West,” thanks to its many purported health benefits.

Those benefits – none of which have been studied – are said to include everything from reducing stress to fighting infections to helping with infertility. Not surprisingly, vaginal steams are also supposed to help with hemorrhoids.

Treatments cost anywhere from $20 to $75 (depending on your location) and basically involve perching naked on a bottomless stool over a boiling pot of water infused with mugwort, wormwood and a variety of other herbs.

While some women swear by the “V-steam,” (a 45-year-old woman interviewed by the LA Times says she not only had fewer body aches and more energy, she also became pregnant after just five steams), doctors seem dubious.

“I just don’t understand physiologically how putting steam up the vagina is going to change your fertility or help you relieve stress,” says Dr. Laura Riley, director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General in Boston. “There’s plenty of data that supports mind-body intervention and how that improves fertility and decreases stress. But steam itself in the vagina doesn’t make any sense for me. It’s not like it’s going to blow up some closed tube.”

This placebo effect might do it for some people, she says, but it wouldn’t do much for her.

“Someone who believes it’s going to work might get some benefit,” she says. “But I’d be more concerned about burning my vagina. That’s a very sensitive area.”

What's the strangest spa treatment you've had? Tell us in the comments.

You can find The Body Odd on Twitter and Facebook.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

There are a lot of ways to get drunk (especially this time of year), but according to new research published in the British Medical Journal, soaking your feet in booze is not one of them.

Still, foot drinking (sole sipping?) is a popular urban myth widely circulated in Denmark -- and elsewhere (search “drunk,” “soaking your feet” and “alcohol” and you'll get more than 17,000 hits). So much so that Danish researchers decided it was high time to put an end to it with a little scientific investigation.

They chose two men and a woman in their 30s -- all of whom were healthy with no history of alcoholism or liver disease -- and asked them to abstain from alcohol for 24 hours (and loofah their feet). On the day of the experiment, they performed blood alcohol tests on all three subjects, then had the trio submerge their feet in a washbowl containing three 700 mL bottles of Karloff vodka, each carrying an alcohol content of 37.5% by volume.

And there they sat for three hours, or as the researchers put it, “a time frame corresponding to a medium-length visit to the local pub.”

Every half hour, researchers tested the volunteers’ blood for any change in the alcohol level. They also asked them to self-assess for any intoxication-related symptoms by scoring on a scale of zero to 10 their self-confidence, their urge to speak and their desire for “spontaneous hugs.” (They refrained from testing a desire to grab the person next to them and blubber “I love you, man.”)

Not surprisingly, results showed that “transcutaneous intake of alcohol through feet is not possible … we conclude that the Danish urban myth about being able to get drunk by submerging feet in strong alcoholic beverage is just that – a myth.”

Interestingly, foot drinking isn’t the only weird myth out there involving alcohol.

Students in Europe and the U.S. have also embraced “vodka eyeballing,” i.e., pouring shots of vodka directly into their eyeballs as a way to get drunk quickly without booze breath or stomach upset. Others are supposedly inserting tampons soaked with vodka into their vagina -- or elsewhere (and here we thought that was just a "30 Rock" punchline).

While no studies have been performed as to whether eyeball shots actually get you drunk faster, ophthalmologists warn the practice can result in burning, swollen, red eyes and possible damage to the optic nerve, which can result in permanent vision problems. As for soaking a tampon in 40-proof alcohol and inserting it into the most sensitive part of your body, we imagine if people are doing this, they’re only doing it once.

Ouch!

Find The Body Odd on Twitter and Facebook.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.

Wondering why your fat cat boss seems so clueless about why you don’t want to work extra shifts during the holidays? It could be because he can’t understand the dour looks you keep throwing his way.

Upper-class people are less adept at reading other people's emotions than their lower-class counterparts, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science.

Frank Franklin Ii / AP file

Donald Trump and other upper-class types don't know -- or care -- what you're feeling.

“We found that people from a lower-class background – in terms of occupation, status, education and income level – performed better in terms of emotional intelligence, the ability to read the emotions that others are feeling,” says Michael Kraus, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral student in psychology at the University of California, San Francisco.

In other words, if you’re looking for a little empathy, you’re more likely to get it from a poor person than a rich one (just ask Bob Cratchit).

In a series of studies, more than 300 upper- and lower-class people were asked the interpret the emotions of people in photos and of strangers during mock job interviews.

In both cases, those with more education, money and self-defined social status weren’t nearly as adept at figuring out if a person was angry, happy, anxious or upset as their lower class colleagues.

Kraus says that's likely because people from lower-economic backgrounds may have to rely on others for help.           

“You turn to people, it’s an adaptive strategy,” he says. “You develop this sort of heightened independence with other individuals as a way to deal with not having enough individual resources.”

Upper-class people, on the other hand, don’t need to ask for help that often.

“One of the negative side effects of that is that they’re less concerned and less perceptive of other people’s needs and wishes. They show a deficit in empathic accuracy.”

Does this mean rich people have more a tendency to be, well, insensitive jerks?

“I wouldn’t say that upper-class people are being jerky, but they’re less aware of other people’s emotions,” says Kraus. “If a person is upset, they don’t see it. Similarly, if a person is happy and excited, they may not react to that either.”

Kraus admits the results he and his colleagues came up with “scare us a little bit” but says the effects aren’t permanent. In fact, in another experiment they conducted, upper-class people became much better at reading emotions once they were asked to imagine themselves on the other end of the economic, educational or social spectrum.

In other words, much like Ebenezer Scrooge, even your fat cat boss may one day see the light.

Find The Body Odd on Twitter and Facebook.

Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.