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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?

Lung Health | Last Active: Oct 23 10:20am | Replies (3405)
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@gabrielm

Absolutely, I also hope we will be able to put it behind us one day! From my experience with experimenting with various things over the years, I think I can safely say that while it's not behind me, it's very much to the side of me. It interferes minimally in my daily life and it's come down to a few key things;

- utilizing what I've learned from the Buteyko breathing method; learning how to nasal breathe, to resist the urge to take deep breaths over time, and breathing exercises
- Mild to moderate physical exercise with very controlled breathing; this includes light jogging, some weight lifting (as my breathing allows) and never pushing myself hard with exercise
- Incorporating healthy eating and lifestyle; I've been enjoying learning about proper nutrition lately
- Walking! This one is relatively new as I recently established a goal of getting 10,000 steps a day. I started doing this daily, with an hour walk in the early morning and this has put me from the 'doing ok' category to the 'hey I barely know it's there' category in terms of air hunger symptoms. I've done some research on walking and there are a whole host of benefits including being low impact, you're not working hard, you're still exercising and you're improving cardio. It's also meditative and gives me a chance to practice slow and controlled nasal breathing. So I'm going to continue doing daily long walks and I think it will improve things further.

So these are some things to consider that have helped me tremendously over the years.

I also learned some "rescue exercises" when I felt like I was going to have a panic attack when this first started for me which involves mentally telling yourself that you're ok and you're not in danger. Then do some mild breath-holding sessions where you breathe out your nose, hold your breath for 10 seconds or so, rest for a couple of minutes, and repeat. This helped me regain control of my breathing when I felt like I was going to panic.

Is there something from this or maybe from your research you're hoping to implement as part of your improvement plan?

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Replies to "Absolutely, I also hope we will be able to put it behind us one day! From..."
trast | @trast | Jul 21, 2023

Hi!
The truth is that I hope that at least this will not interfere with my daily life, because right now, my ability to concentrate when I have trouble breathing is practically non-existent.
I find the methods you use to keep it at bay interesting (and hopeful).
I have bought some books about breathing, the Buteiko method and others on Amazon. I will put them into practice as soon as possible.
Regarding walking, I have noticed that if I increase my speed to more than 4 km/h (in the EU we use the decimal metric system) the problems start: my hips and knees ache, my chest get compressed, etc. (I am 55 years old and currently suffering from obesity, due to a lack of physical exercise). According to my smartwatch, I walk an average of 5,000 steps a day, but these are steps I take at home or at work. However, it seems like a very good idea to me and I think I'm going to start walking. It may take me a while to get to 10,000 steps in the long run, but I'll set it as a goal. Thank you so much!
My diet is mainly based on vegetables, legumes, whole grains and fruit, sometimes accompanied by chicken, turkey or fish and, very occasionally, eggs (it is a specific diet for people who have had a heart attack).
I will implement the "rescue" breathing exercises that you mention to help me. I thank you too.
Many thanks for everything. Now I am going to put your methods into practice and in a while, I will tell you about the results.

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