2023-06-06 07:06:17
Text/UHO Youhuo Health Network
We often say “die laughing” when we encounter funny things, but is it really possible for people to die laughing? In the book “The Untouchable Curse in History”, a student of Japanese medical school, Nakagawa Asako, combines science and technology, medical knowledge and strange stories in the history of various countries to discuss those incredible phenomena that were officially certified but could not be explained by common sense at the time. The following is an excerpt from the original book:
Photo/provided by photoAC
The “Laughing Death” in Papua New Guinea
The scene is changed to Papua New Guinea (Papua New Guinea, an island country located in the north of Australia), where a strange disease called “Kuru” (Kuru) was once prevalent. The name of the disease comes from the word “kuria” in the local Fore language, which means “to tremble”. As the name suggests, the main symptom of the disease is violent trembling of the limbs. Other symptoms include joint pain, headaches, impairment of body coordination, and difficulty walking.
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During the onset, the patient will have involuntary abnormal movements, and the limbs and trunk will jump and move wildly, similar to the symptoms of “chorea”. Even if the hands and feet are fixed, the muscles will suddenly vibrate, showing the performance of myoclonus. The disease is also known as the laughing death disease or haha disease. Because once a person suffers from Kuru disease, the emotional ups and downs will increase, and sometimes they will laugh out loud. The reason is abnormal brain function, which further leads to impaired cognitive function, and in severe cases, the patient can even be unable to speak.
Kuru patients almost always die within a few years of the disease, and no effective treatment has been found so far. In other words, once suffering from Kuru disease, it is equivalent to being sentenced to death. However, kuru does not cause large-scale contagion like other infectious diseases, and only occurs in the Fale ethnic minority in Papua New Guinea. Why does this strange disease appear?
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Cause of Laughing Death Sickness
The person who unraveled the cause of Kuru disease was American medical researcher Daniel. Carlton. Gajdusek (Daniel Carleton Gajdusek) and Baruch. Samuel. Bloomberg (Baruch Samuel Blumberg). They concluded that the cause of Kuru’s disease lies in the protein “Prion”. For this contribution, they won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1976.
Poon protein is a protein that is much smaller than a virus and does not carry genetic material such as DNA. Poon protein has a special method of proliferation, which is divided into normal state and abnormal state, and the abnormal state will cause disease. Abnormal Puen protein cannot be decomposed in the brain, and will slowly accumulate and induce nearby Puen protein to mutate.
If this process continues, abnormal Poon proteins proliferate in large numbers. Once a certain amount is exceeded, people will get sick.Poon protein in normal state is not uncommon. It exists in cells everywhere in the body, especially in the brain. Therefore, almost all diseases caused by abnormalities of Puen protein have a great impact on the brain.
Where did the abnormal poon protein come from? This starts with the Falei’s unique habit of cannibalism.In the past, the Falei would eat the brains of their dead. It’s called cannibalism, and it’s been practiced all over the world. One theory is that there was abnormal Poon protein in the brain of the deceased, while others got sick from eating the brain of the deceased. There are also studies that speculate that the wounds on the human body are infected with Poon protein when cooking. Since kuru disease is more likely to occur in women who are responsible for handling food, this speculation is still reasonable.
Later, under the mandatory regulations of the Australian government (Editor’s Note: In the 20th century, the place was under the trusteeship of the Australian government), the Falei finally stopped the habit of cannibalism. The mystery of kuru has finally been solved thanks to the discovery of its cause. However, there are still several cases of kuru attacks each year. A long incubation period is also characteristic of the disease.
(This article is excerpted from/The untouchable curse in history: How many mysteries can be solved by science so far for those incredible phenomena officially recognized and unexplainable by common sense at the time?/ Big is culture)
The article is authorized to be reproduced from “UHO Youhuo Health Network”Is it really possible for a person to die laughing?The origin of “laughing to death” is the custom of cannibalism
further reading
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