Italian researchers are saying it’s possible that the popular social networking site, Facebook, may trigger asthma attacks. Their findings, published in the journal The Lancet, are based on a case study of an 18-year-old man.
After being dumped by his girlfriend, the man became depressed when she “un-friended” him on Facebook. Wanting to see what she was up to, he created another account under a different name and became her friend again. However, each time he visited her profile, he experienced shortness of breath.
Facebook a Breathing Factor
Doctors asked his worried mother to measure his peak expiratory flow before and after he viewed her profile, which is when they noticed a 20 per cent decline.
Although Facebook itself is not a direct cause of asthma, these findings, published in 2010, suggest that it – and other social media – may be a new generation of triggers for asthma caused by psychological stress.
