No Jokes, Please

KNOW a good joke? Don’t tell it to anyone with asthma. More than half of

asthma sufferers have their symptoms brought on by serious bouts of

giggling, says Stuart Garay, a New York University professor. He said his

study of 235 patients found 56 per cent get “laughter-induced asthma”.

Heavy breathing may be to blame. Another new chest trauma found by

researchers at the Mayo Clinic, in the USA, is hot-tub lung. They told

the conference that people who become allergic to common bacteria in the

tub’s steam suffer cold-like symptoms, then spend more time in the hot

tub to shake them off. It’s a downward spiral, they say.