Not Funny? Yeah right. It's so funny you can die from laughing!
(Article from E! Online)
Diagnosis (you know, the mag you keep on the nightstand right next to People) details the curious case of a 62-year-old man who lost consciousness at least six times last season when the antics of Jerry, Elaine, Kramer and George--especially George--prodded him into giggle fits.
The condition has been dubbed "Seinfeld Syncope" by the trio of doctors writing for the journal. Syncope (pronounced "sin-cah-pee") is the medical term for fainting.
The unidentified patient lapsed into "Seinfeld Syncope" when stricken with "hysterical laughter," says Dr. Andrew Eisenhauer of the Lahey Hitchcock Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Particularly troubling was an incident that occurred at dinner time. Seinfeld was on the tube. The man started laughing. And then--splat! "He fainted in the mashed potatoes," Eisenhauer says.
Jason Alexander's nebbish loser George Costanza was the man's chief threat. "He just happened to find him more funny and would laugh harder," Eisenhauer says.
Eisenhauer and his two colleagues never actually witnessed the patient pass out. The diagnosis was based on a case study of his lifestyle. It turned out, Eisenhauer says, that the man's family figured out the culprit even before they did--forbidding him from watching the "Must See TV" sitcom.
The laughing spells turned to fainting spells due to a dramatic drop in blood pressure. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, common causes are standing up too fast, breathing too deeply (aka hyperventilating) and exercising too vigorously (especially in heat).
A producer from Seinfeld contacted Eisenhauer last week, requesting a copy of his report. A spokesperson for the top-rated sitcom tells the New York Daily News that the show's writers are considering working a "Seinfeld Syncope" storyline into an upcoming episode. That is, of course, unless the staff decides they'd be repeating themselves. (The show about nothing already did a 22-minute riff on the woman who suffers seizures when she hears the voice of Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart.)
Meanwhile, "Seinfeld Syncope" is not an epidemic. The 62-year-old patient is the "only person that I know," Eisenhauer says, who suffered from it--and that man was prone to fainting because three of his four arteries were blocked. Since a corrective procedure, the patient has been able to watch Seinfeld this season without face-flopping in his dinner.
A healthy adult, Eisenhauer says, should be able to watch--and chuckle at--Seinfeld without fear of blackouts.
