Shortness of breath — known medically as dyspnea — is often described as an intense tightening in the chest, air hunger, difficulty breathing, breathlessness or a feeling of suffocation. Very strenuous exercise, extreme temperatures, obesity and higher altitude all can cause shortness of breath in a healthy person.
Long-term breathlessness is usually caused by: obesity or being unfit. poorly controlled asthma. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – permanent damage to the lungs usually caused by years of smoking.
If shortness of breath happens when you're clearly not exerting yourself, when you're doing something you normally could do without feeling winded, or comes on suddenly, those are warning signs that a heart issue could potentially be to blame.
Key Facts. If your breathing has become labored and difficult for no obvious reason, it may be the sign of a more serious medical problem. If chest pain or pressure, fainting or nausea accompanies shortness of breath, you should treat it as a medical emergency.
Importantly, if shortness of breath is moderate to severe and occurs suddenly — and especially if it's accompanied by chest pain, lightheadedness and changes to the color of your skin — it's become a medical emergency that warrants a call to 911.
"Chest pain, rapid heartbeat and breathlessness may result when an insufficient amount of blood reaches the heart muscle," says Tung. (See "Symptoms" below.) One of the key distinctions between the two is that a heart attack often develops during physical exertion, whereas a panic attack can occur at rest.
While shortness of breath is commonly associated with anxiety, it can also be a symptom of severe medical problems, such as heart attacks or pulmonary embolisms. However, if it is anxiety that is causing you to experience shortness of breath, it will usually go away once you've calmed down.
Shortness of breath is often a symptom of heart and lung problems. But it can also be a sign of other conditions like asthma, allergies or anxiety. Intense exercise or having a cold can also make you feel breathless.
Extra fat on your neck, chest, or across your abdomen can make it difficult to breathe deeply and may produce hormone that affect your body's breathing patterns.
People can experience shortness of breath while walking for a number of reasons. Sometimes, this occurs as a result of conditions such as anxiety, asthma, or obesity. Less commonly, shortness of breath signals a more serious underlying medical condition.
Commonly these include blood tests, imaging tests such as a chest X-ray or CT scan, lung function tests or an echocardiogram.
Sleep and sleep loss have remarkable effects on breathing. Although sleep causes ventilatory disturbances of greater severity and variety than does sleep deprivation, the effects of sleep and sleep loss on respiration are similar. For example, both impair ventilatory drive and arousal responses to a variety of stimuli.
The Effect of Anxiety on the Heart
Rapid heart rate (tachycardia) – In serious cases, can interfere with normal heart function and increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. Increased blood pressure – If chronic, can lead to coronary disease, weakening of the heart muscle, and heart failure.
Those with an anxiety disorder have most likely experienced a panic or anxiety attack at some point in their lives. The symptoms can closely mimic heart attacks for some people—they may feel chest pain, shortness of breath and heart palpitations, or a racing heartbeat.
Causes of Shortness of Breath
Anxiety related breathing issues tend to be a result of hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is also known as "overbreathing," and it occurs when your body is receiving too much oxygen and is expelling too much carbon dioxide.
1) Acute, intermittent or paroxysmal, and chronic dyspnea. 2) Dyspnea at rest and exertional dyspnea. 3) Orthopnea, which refers to dyspnea occurring in the recumbent position and improving when sitting or standing. 4) Platypnea, which refers to dyspnea increasing in the sitting or standing position.
Although shortness of breath can make things difficult, you can find ways to cope. Living well with breathlessness comes from a combination of accepting that your life has changed, adapting the way you do things, and continuing to take part in activities.
Often, the first thing a doctor, nurse, or emergency medical technician will do is give you extra oxygen (called oxygen therapy). You get it through tubes in your nose or windpipe, or through a mask placed over your nose and mouth. This helps get more oxygen into your lungs and bloodstream.
The fear of getting out of breath may put you off doing any activity that makes you more breathless. However, making yourself breathless through exercise can help improve the symptoms of your lung condition.
Even if you consider yourself "in shape," it's still normal to feel out of breath after climbing stairs. That's because you're transitioning from a resting state to a high-intensity exercise quickly, and your body needs more oxygen to deliver to your muscles (hence why you start breathing heavily).
A sedentary lifestyle. The most common cause of breathlessness is simply being out of shape. Leading a sedentary lifestyle brings about dyspnea when the time comes to perform a simple task. Add smoking or obesity to the equation and lifting a heavy box is sure to bring on huffs and puffs.
From a cardiovascular standpoint, it's common to see people short of breath if they're experiencing heart failure. It commonly exists in conjunction with diabetes, high blood pressure, or atrial fibrillation. Leaky or stenotic (too narrow) heart valves can similarly cause shortness of breath.