The Asthma Roller Coaster

There are those who say suffering asthma is a real roller coaster ride. Well, guess what? A roller coaster ride can indeed help.

Netherlands researchers have won the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery that asthma symptoms can be treated with a roller coaster ride.

They published their findings (“Rollercoaster Asthma: When Positive Emotional Stress Interferes with Dyspnea Perception”) in Behaviour Research and Therapy.

Now that’s creative use of the condition’s ups and downs. Although, can you just imagine telling someone who has trouble breathing that s/he should take a harrowing ride on a roller coaster? Guess one just has to get over the fear, huh?

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements and improbable research that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” Even actual Nobel Prize winners participate in the ceremonies.

I kid you not!