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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?
Lung Health | Last Active: 3 days ago | Replies (3347)Comment receiving replies
@gabrielm, @ritasob1 @jenniferhunter, @lwilliams06, @katgts, @ashleyh- Good morning everyone. I hope that all of you had a good night sleep. I've become concerned about so many of you complaining about shortness of breath. I know how that feels, it's scary and even petrifying, which of course makes it worse. There is a plethora of organic reasons for shortness of breath. If you do not have any of these, to your knowledge, than we have to go outside of your body to find a cause.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/shortness-of-breath/basics/causes/sym-20050890
I am not a doctor and can't not make a diagnosis. But I can share with you my little story and the causes of my foray into this horrible place. I left for a University far away from my home, looking to break away from my over protective family. The morning of my flight I started to breathe very hard and I also started to gag. The gagging was learned behavior from my mom- a whole other story! I unfortunately became so home sick that I wound up going home, back into my source of comfort and anxiety. For many years after that I had to carry a paper bag with me so that I could stop this fast and mind conscious inhale, exhale cycle.
What I had, and it may be what you have is called hyperventilation. I will not go into the science of this as I have a YouTube video that will do that. But what I can tell you is that hyperventilation is most usually caused by stress. It doesn't matter why you have stress or whether you are conscious of it, it's still stress. We all have to figure out the cause/reason for it. It took me years to get rid of it, through therapy. But, that was years ago. Today there are breathing exercises that you can find on-line to help. So with out further to do here is the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p97HeXx0vN0
Please let me know how the exercises work out.
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@merpreb This is good information and the Mayo link covers a lot of breathing issues. I always try to have relaxed breathing and have done a lot of slow breathing to lower my blood pressure and improve breathing, but sometimes it won't work because of the asthma and swelling of airways and phlegm that is just in the way. That was the key to solving my own issues because my allergy treatments were not enough, and with some changes, I am breathing easier again.
I also have a physical complication, thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) and because of physical chest tightness, one side of my ribs doesn't expand as much as the other, and that side was always where my excess phlegm and lung infections began. Many doctors don't understand TOS as it is barely mentioned in medical school, but it causes the upper chest anxiety type panic breathing that you describe because the chest doesn't move properly, and compression of nerves and blood vessels. TOS, has caused sudden painful muscle spasms into my chest wall from nerve compression that can be triggered by the position of my head. All of the vital nerves are traveling from the spine in the neck into the chest and arms through some very small spaces and going to the heart and lungs. Injuries in these areas can cause tight fascial restrictions that put lots of pressure on the nerves causing tightness in tissues. That sets the stage for illness when phlegm movement and expulsion is slowed down and accumulates providing an environment where germs can grow.
The physical therapy that helps me with TOS also includes Myofascial release, and I am making steady progress. Stress and fear can put my body right back into these negative patterns by tightening up everything we had already released in therapy. Lung tissue is mainly fascia with blood vessels and can have restrictions into it. My therapist can feel the restriction pathways through my body with her hands, and by stretching this tight tissue, it opens up space where fluids, oxygen, and metabolic waste products can be exchanged and eliminated. It also feels good when things move properly again. I'll share some links and the discussion I created about MFR therapy. This would be something to consider if other treatments have failed. MFR is also about letting go of past emotional trauma and scar tissue and is a mind/body practice.
This explains a lot of mechanics of breathing and how TOS affects it.
https://www.painscience.com/articles/respiration-connection.php
Myofascial Release information (MFR)
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS)
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/thoracic-outlet-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20353988
https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/how-truly-treat-thoracic-outlet-syndrome/