Laughter may not be the best medicine.....

Have you ever experience laughing so hard, beyond control, your body shaking like you've been electricuted by an innocent hair drier while soaking yourself in the bath tub, at something that is not even funny? No, this post is not about Malaysian Politics, or even some of the funny but not in a ha ha way, decisions made by some Muslims playing Spanish Inquisition, ooops...I meant Spanish Harlem. What next? Whip those who get caught drinking tapai juice in public? I mean, why the double standards right?

(Here are some interesting read regarding alcohol consumption written by Anas in "What does Quran say about alcohol consumption" , and matters related to this in "Hassan Ali & the temple of Doom" by Syed Akhbar Ali and "Mercy and Repentance at the heart of Quran by Marina Mahathir.). *And here's a new entry from Walski, "Intoxicating Rhetoric". *

Nay, Nahey, No, I'm not talking about those non laughing matters that make us laugh nevertheless. I'm talking about Kuru disease. After exploring, well, not in depth, two other rare diseases, (go on, click on the link and find out what I wrote about "Foreign Accent Syndrome" and about Alice In Wonderland Syndrome in "Alice Wha'?" which coincidentally have little to do with the diseases) , Kuru Disease, commonly known as "Laughing Death", of course common to us but for the tribal Fore People of Papua New Guinea, whereby this disease is exclusive to, Kuru is the common term, is a disease characterized by sudden bursts of maniacal laughter.

Doctors from around the world came in to unravel this mysterious disease, as it hits the headlines in the 1950s. Physicians observed men and women with shaking limbs, which subsided with rest, but a month to three months later sufferers would begin to sway and stumble, lose the ability to stand, become cross-eyed and lose the power of coherent speech before eventually dying. (Hmh...sounds like a malingerer on a Mournday morning, except for the dying part. They just don't die). The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke reported that tests on the deceased showed the emergence of holes in the brain, known as "swiss-cheesing." that caused the deaths.

At some point, a U.S. physician Carleton Gajdusek, later awarded the Nobel Rrize in 1976, for his discovery , deduced that the infection was transmitted through a village custom of eating dead family members. Is there a cure? Let's ask Dr House;



Apparently, when cannibalism was eliminated, the epidemic came to an end. Here's another interesting article regarding The Laughing Death.

There is a great lesson to be learned here my friends. As much as we feel like eating up some of our dreadful relatives,(or is it just me?), there's karma to deal with. Unless the relative is truly worth eating and then you die laughing because of it...then go ahead...

How to not die young you ask me? ( err..apart from not eating up your irritating relatives, no matter how tempting it is). Well, here are some tips;

1. Minimize breathing Malaysian air sometime during the Musim Jerebu (we may as well make it as official as Musim Tengkujuh, Musim Kemarau, Musim Pilihanraya dan sebagainya). The Malaysian air is as transparent as our government.

2. If there is any probable cause of my death, highest in probability would be from reading the local newspapers. Seriously, on top of loosing RM1.20 per copy, some of the articles posted in there could really be detriMENTAL to one's health, we could all laugh till we die...or more likely, until we die.....or both...

3. You tell me.....