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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
Well, it's been a while since I last posted and I wish I had good news and could say that I have solved this problem. I have not.
I have been willing to try ANYTHING to cure myself of this. I have tried expensive medical tests, weird meditations, and intense exercise regimens, all to no avail. The cat scan of my lungs came back and showed nothing other than I had histoplasmosis at one time. According to the pulmonologist my breathing problems could not possibly be a result of anything shown on my cat scan. My breathing tests showed ruled out asthma and COPD, although I could have figured that from the months of taking inhalers that did absolutely nothing. I am now off all drugs, and my condition is still the same. I was instructed to blow in a "peak air flow meter" for a month to note any changes. There were none. I can blow hard enough to max out the meter in most cases, regardless of how I am feeling. I can conclude that I do not have an obstructive condition.
I have adopted an aggressive exercise regimen to condition my heart and lungs. Although I am 31 and not overweight, I figured perhaps conditioning my heart and lungs more would help. I have been running for about a year, but for the past month or two I have started running 10 miles every week. No noticeable improvement. A few weeks were good, but the past week has been bad with the exact symptoms we are all too familiar with. My diet has included one bag of mixed vegetables and fruits for the past year and a half. I have quite a healthy diet, and making diet modifications seem to yield no differences as well. The magnesium someone suggested also did not seem to make an improvement, although it did give me an upset stomach the next day. Also I have read about "low potassium" a few times. My bloodwork showed that my potassium actually was above the upper limit because of the amount of fruits and vegetables in my diet, so that would not be it.
I do like what one gentleman mentioned - it's not SOB but "air hunger". That rings true to me. I'm not short of breath really, I just feel the need to gasp for more air. I can resist the urge with seemingly no consequences, but why is the urge so persistent when it has been shown that medically nothing is wrong with me?
I feel for all of you, and I read all of your posts. I'm usually on my phone and I find it cumbersome to type long posts, so I typically just like posts that resonate with me. Wishing all of you the best in fighting whatever this is.
Replies to "Well, it's been a while since I last posted and I wish I had good news..."
@alureon, sorry to read what you're going through. For me, intense exercise made my condition worse. I remember when my breathing was fine for a while and then I increased my running and ran faster and harder, my air hunger came back suddenly and with a vengeance. I had to stop exercise for a while and start very slow again and work my way back up. I now go for a run maybe once or twice a week, and mostly do light to moderate weightlifting about 5 times per week. My runs are really mostly walks with short bouts of jogging in between. I just listen to my body and if I feel the SOB coming on stronger I walk the rest of the way home or stop if I'm on the treadmill. But weightlifting seems to help me the most because I can control my breathing and work out as intensely or light as my breathing will allow. You might consider incorporating light weightlifting using only nasal breathing rather than hard running with maximum breathing. At least for me, I've learned that it doesn't seem to have anything to do with lung capacity since my lung capacity tests have all come back normal. Intense exercise doesn't help to expand my lungs, even if it did, the SOB would still be there.
Regarding the SOB vs. air hunger, yes I think we all have the air hunger feeling where we can't satisfy a feeling of a need for air. I guess for me shortness of breath means air hunger, where as "out of breath" equates to a normal feeling of a lack of air while exercising, but in that case it's not uncomfortable because heavy breathing still satisfies the need for air. Semantics, I know, but in my mind shortness of breath means just that, that you're "short" of breath since the "need" doesn't go away even when you take a deep breath.
Anyway, I hope you improve soon. Keep us updated. I don't think it will hurt to try something different; taming the exercise and doing shorter and lighter sessions while incorporating weight lifting and using light, slow breathing. That's what at least maintains my breathing at a manageable level.
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That's the thing with mine, it's more of an air hunger. Everytime I get checked out my oxygen is fine, like near 100%, but I still cannot get a deep breath to go down and I find myself gasping for breath. With me they just found myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, and all the symptoms seem to fit that. I suppose you must have been evaluated for heart things as well.