TUESDAY, May 24, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- There's nothing funny about this: Laughter can cause an asthma flare-up.
"It's as common as some of the most well-known asthma triggers, such as grasses, trees, pollen, fumes and odors, and it's even more common than dust mites, allergy to animals and molds. It's a little-appreciated frequent trigger," researcher Dr. Stuart Garay, a clinical professor of medicine at New York University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.
His team's study of 235 people with asthma found 56 percent of them noting laughter as a trigger for their respiratory symptoms. Compared with other types of asthma, this laughter-induced asthma didn't appear to cause more asthma flare-ups requiring emergency room care or hospitalization, however.
"Patients did report that during times when their asthma is well-controlled, they can laugh for longer without getting asthma symptoms," Garay said.
"That suggests that laughter-induced asthma may be a sign that a person's asthma isn't as well-controlled as it could be. People with asthma should be allowed to laugh," he added.
It's not clear how laughter can cause asthma symptoms, Garay added, but it might involve hyperventilating. He said he was surprised by the prevalence of laughter-induced asthma.
Coughing and chest tightness were the most common symptoms of laughter-induced asthma incidents, the study found.
The amount of laughter that can trigger asthma symptoms varied from person to person. "For a majority of patients, mild laughter or even a chuckle will set off coughing. For others, laughing hard will bring on asthma symptoms," Garay said.
The study was to be presented Tuesday at the American Thoracic Society's annual meeting, in San Diego.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about asthma flare-ups.
