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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?
Lung Health | Last Active: Oct 23 10:20am | Replies (3405)Comment receiving replies
I write this as I sit in the hallway at school because this symptom is so embarrassing. For about 2 years now I have had the same symptom that’s been described in this discussion. It feels like progressively it is getting worse and occurring all day, every day no matter what I am doing. It started out randomly one day. I had moments where I wouldn’t feel it but it was always there now for the past few months it has been at its absolute worse. What I feel is a sort of tightness in my throat that can only be relived by taking a deep breath or gasp for air however this is not always possible. This symptom creates a lot of anxiety on me and makes it hard to live my every day life. I have been seeing a therapist for a few months now and they have tried to get me on anxiety medication but I am hesitant to do so. If anyone here has any advice on how to cope with this or at least bring it down please, I am begging for some ideas. I read on this forum about the buteyko breathing method. How do you do this? Does B-12 vitamin actually work? Anything that can help me get back to the way I was would help tremendously. I am only 21 and I feel as if this issue is causing me to become almost incapable of living my life
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@lwilliams06 Sorry to hear about your condition. You are not alone my friend! It sounds similar to my situation, except for me, I didn't really feel tightness in my throat, it was just a terrible shortness of breath that no matter how much I expanded my lungs, it wouldn't "take" all the way and wouldn't satisfy the feeling. Then every now and then a deep breath would satisfy it. When it was at its worst, that's when I discovered the Buteyko Method. It worked me for the first time I used it. Then I stopped doing the exercises and symptoms came back about a year later. I applied the method, then it came back a couple of years after that when it was at it's absolute worst, so much so that I had multiple panic attacks from not being able to get a deep breath. I applied the technique once again, but much less effective and it took me a lot longer to get better. It is not 100%, but it is manageable as of now. I would recommend the Buteyko technique to you. I would use this organization because they teach the closest to what Dr. Buteyko originally taught; https://www.learnbuteykoonline.net/ It costs a bit of money (I think around $200 or something, I can't quite remember, but well worth it. It is a series of lessons that they teach you the technique, then you do the exercises daily until you get much better. Then after that, you maintain a good diet, consistent exercise, and doing the breathing techniques every now and then to keep your breathing in check. Check it out, sign up and follow the instructions carefully. They're really good about working with your situation and helping you perfect the technique. Let us know how it goes.
The reason you’re having this is because of acid reflux. Sometimes it is silent and you won’t have any heart burn. But when the acid gets back up from the stomach into the esophagus then the esophagus spasms and also narrows down and sometimes acid also gets into lungs. Plz take an alkaline diet and visit a gastro. And plz take a ppi like omeprazole or h2 blocker like Zantac. Try it for a week you will see the difference. But you have to steadily try for a week atleast to see any difference
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@lwilliams06 Hello and welcome. I'm glad you reached out. Don't be embarrassed, just start being a detective and ask questions about why this is happening. There can be many reasons for shortness of breath, and if you breathe mostly using the upper muscles in the rib cage and neck, that actually increases anxiety. You might have allergies or asthma contributing to the problem, and it's important to find out. I know that is stressful too, and no one want s to find out there is something "wrong", but as you go on on life, things change, and you'll find a way to manage. None of us are perfect, and we shouldn't expect perfection in things we cannot change, but instead think about how we can adapt and make it better. Knowledge is power, and the more you know about yourself, the more you can feel at ease with change. This is a life long process, but you will affect your future and aging with the choices you make now. I remember feeling sad about the diagnosis of asthma, but by changing a lot of things, I don't have problems breathing. You may want to start with an appointment with a primary care physician. That can rule out out problems and find others. Not knowing is also stressful, as I'm sure you are aware, and knowledge will help you overcome this challenge. It's also easy to think that you have what someone else has because you have similar symptoms. That may or may not be true as there are many overlapping symptoms with different causes, and that is what a doctor does; they question and sort through the possibilities and test to figure out the answer. We can't control everything. It's something we as humans have to accept, but given that, we can do our best and believe that we can make a difference. You are young which is in your favor. I don't know if you have had any injuries that could be part of this or muscle or tissue tightness, but there are things to do that help if this is the case. I hope this helps you think about this.