Like a few people here, I also had spontaneous pneumothorax as a teenager, a few times. Never severe, no medical intervention required (beyond diagnosis), which I'm finding a bit strange, based on what others here are writing. This was in 1975, so maybe procedures are different now?
Anyway, I want to discuss two specific things.
1) At the time, being a young college student, I pigged out on junk food, often popcorn that I would pop in a pot using oil. I came to associate my cooking popcorn in this way with pneumothorax occurrences.
2) I was tall and quite underweight. I'm wondering if other young people who had spontaneous pneumothorax tend to be shaped similarly.
Perhaps insufficient protein in your diet could have contributed? It can cause connective tissue problems in adolescent athletes, so it’s not implausibly linked.
Anyway, I want to discuss two specific things.
1) At the time, being a young college student, I pigged out on junk food, often popcorn that I would pop in a pot using oil. I came to associate my cooking popcorn in this way with pneumothorax occurrences.
2) I was tall and quite underweight. I'm wondering if other young people who had spontaneous pneumothorax tend to be shaped similarly.