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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?
Lung Health | Last Active: 20 hours ago | Replies (3358)Comment receiving replies
Good Morning Gabe. Thank you for the response. As prescribed by the GI doctor after the endoscopy, I take Nexium daily. It's helped the reflux. With regards to the nasal symptoms, I have Flonase and Sinex Severe sprays. They actually help relieve the stuffy congested nose immediately which helps with breathing but seems to reappear shortly after. Maybe I should start some breathing exercises. I'm not sure where to investigate next. What I know is that I've been cleared for most of the major body systems that would cause this even though I'm still feeling the air hunger daily. And it seems to be progressing/worsening becoming more prevalent?? I guess I'll just keep keeping active. I try to run 2-3 miles a day 4/5 per week along with weight training. I climb and descend roughly 300 stairs daily. Ironically, I feel my breathing is vastly improved while I'm exercising or staying active.
Replies to "Good Morning Gabe. Thank you for the response. As prescribed by the GI doctor after the..."
Have you tried yoga? Or meditation? Or acupuncture?
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When it first started for me years ago, I started doing breathing exercises through the Buteyko Breathing method. With this method, the focus is to reduce the breathing as much as possible and control it whether resting or exercise. I remember that when I was taking big breaths through my mouth whenever I could, it would seem to be worse but when I resisted the urge to take deep breaths and controlled my breathing through my nose, the symptoms would reduce. This is where I learned the method by the way; https://www.learnbuteykoonline.net/
Similar to you, I remember feeling better during exercise until one time I pushed myself too hard when running and the air hunger returned and never completely went away. This was around the end of 2017. So since then I have been doing moderate exercise without pushing myself too hard. I go as hard as my breathing will allow and that also seems to keep symptoms at bay.
I would suggest trying to reduce your breathing as much as possible and resisting the urge to take deep breaths. I think this definitely helped to regulate things for me and bring it under control. And also you could temporarily reduce your exercise for a few days to see how your body responds, i.e., running 1 mile at a lighter pace and doing moderate weightlifting all while nasal breathing only. Just a thought because for me, I find when done right exercise can help with the symptoms in general.