Aa
shortness of breath/frequent yawning
I am a 41 year old female with a 2 year old, in good health other than being about 10 pounds overweight. Two months ago I began experiencing shortness of breath. I yawn constantly in an attempt to get air. The doctor thought asthma, especially given my family history of lung problems, so though my lungs sounded clear I tried advair/albuterol. No change in condition.
I had a ct scan to check for a pulmonary embolism and everything looked good. I have been taking previcid for 2 weeks to treat possible acid reflux, but there has been no change in my condition. I feel better when I sleep and wake up feeling great, only to have the sob return within a few hours.
A possibly relevant fact: the day before this started I was at yoga doing a twist when I felt a very, very sharp pain in my right side under my rib, along with a feeling as if a rubber band had been snapped in the same place. The pain was excruciating and traveled through my breast and shoulder, but was gone in a few minutes and I was able to continue class. Also, I was in the desert for a few days and it went away but returned about a week later. I fairly certain it isn't stress/anxiety as the trip out of town was not relaxing. The breathing seems better when I stand/worsens sitting down, and I may have been standing more than usual on the trip. I am feeling so frustrated, scared, and depressed.
I had a ct scan to check for a pulmonary embolism and everything looked good. I have been taking previcid for 2 weeks to treat possible acid reflux, but there has been no change in my condition. I feel better when I sleep and wake up feeling great, only to have the sob return within a few hours.
A possibly relevant fact: the day before this started I was at yoga doing a twist when I felt a very, very sharp pain in my right side under my rib, along with a feeling as if a rubber band had been snapped in the same place. The pain was excruciating and traveled through my breast and shoulder, but was gone in a few minutes and I was able to continue class. Also, I was in the desert for a few days and it went away but returned about a week later. I fairly certain it isn't stress/anxiety as the trip out of town was not relaxing. The breathing seems better when I stand/worsens sitting down, and I may have been standing more than usual on the trip. I am feeling so frustrated, scared, and depressed.
I have read through this whole thread, from the beginning. I believe what I have to say will help many people here. I have struggled with the same thing since I've been in child, I am now 26 years old. When I was 13 years old, I would lie awake in bed nearly all night, several days in a row. I feel like I could not breathe, I had the tendency to yawn and after yawning would feel better momentarily, but then it would get worse. My parents took me to the doctor, I was tested for asthma. I was also given allergy testing, but nothing worked. I did not have asthma, but the doctor gave me a sample inhaler. I tried to use it, but the problems persisted.
This is where the story gets interesting. I live in Kansas City, and several family friend highly recommended a nutritional doctor here by the name of Doctor Novak. He was trained as a chiropractor, but he also had an interesting practice of which I have not been able to find the name. I don't believe it is practiced any longer, but this gentleman nearly save my life on several occasions. Within this practice, the doctor will wear a belt and attached to the center of the belt (where you would see a belt buckle normally) is mounted a special instrument. It's flat, but in the shape of a circle. The doctor would ask you to lay on the table, and with one hand would dip into a pouch and touch a powder, with the same consistency of climbing chalk. He would then rub the instrument on the belt with the same hand the touch the powder, and with the other hand he would touch different areas of your body. Sometimes he would ask you to cross your arms, or keep your arm separate of each other on the side of the table, same with your feet. My understanding is that through this practice, the doctors able to get heat readings off of your organs, and these he readings are used to measure the positive to negative polarity, and whether it's off-balance. It sounds weird, but like I said this doctor is nearly save my life on several occasions.
The particular day I went in with the breathing issues, the doctor proceeded with standard tests. Measuring the state of each of my organs. My liver/gallbladder was underperforming, was out of whack regarding polarity.
Doctor Novak instructed me to cut down on my fat intake immediately, start juicing and stay away from bred and sugar as long as possible. I was a 13-year-old kid, I never juiced anything in my life... My mom helped me change the diet. Within about 2 months of a very strict diet, the symptoms completely went away.
Fast forward to my mid 20s, started to eat poorly again. In fact I had been eating poorly for years. I started to have symptoms again, but this time in addition to shortness of breath I also was dizzy, experienced chest tightness, and back pain. My tonsils also started to become swollen, but not infectious. On one occasion, the symptoms were bad enough that I decided to go to the emergency room. After running several tests, monitoring my heart for sometime, and pumping me with meds they were not able to tell what was wrong. I wondered if perhaps I was experiencing something related to what I had experienced years ago when I was 13 years old. I did a lot of research online, and thought it would be a good idea for myself to get tested for Gerd. I had a scope down my throat, I'm sure enough I had acute esophagitis. Pretty standard for someone with GERD.
The doctors tried to put me on a PPI. After doing a lot of research, I'm looking at natural routes. I realized, Gerd for many people is the byproduct of an underperforming gallbladder. Body can't handle fats, acid just build up in your stomach. Nicotine and caffeine can also play a large role in Gerd symptoms. (I had noticed that with both nicotine and caffeine, my breathing symptoms would get worse)
The original diagnosis of my gallbladder when I was 13 years old was still the problem as a 25 year old. I change my eating again, I cut out nicotine and all coffee (still kept green tea but not black) and it took about 3 months. All symptoms were gone.
I believe it's the root issue, it really incorporated all of your comments. Anxiety and stress play into GERD. You can do breathing exercises to help control the symptoms, but anxiety is not the root. Some of you said sleep, lack of sleep also plays a big role in GERD, and also mental stability which affects stress, which effects GERD. Its a tangled web. It's perfectly normal to feel anxious when you can't breath. To those of you who have felt this, you can tell something isn't quite right in your body. When doctors can't tell you what's up, that's when things can start to feel little bit anxious.
The cool thing is the body is really smart, and with the right things it can fix itself. Do something drastic, go on a diet for someone with gallbladder disease (i'm not saying you have gallbladder disease, but this is the best diet you can go on if it is an issue with your gallbladder). Do it for three months and see if you're symptoms decrease.
Best of luck to you all.
This is where the story gets interesting. I live in Kansas City, and several family friend highly recommended a nutritional doctor here by the name of Doctor Novak. He was trained as a chiropractor, but he also had an interesting practice of which I have not been able to find the name. I don't believe it is practiced any longer, but this gentleman nearly save my life on several occasions. Within this practice, the doctor will wear a belt and attached to the center of the belt (where you would see a belt buckle normally) is mounted a special instrument. It's flat, but in the shape of a circle. The doctor would ask you to lay on the table, and with one hand would dip into a pouch and touch a powder, with the same consistency of climbing chalk. He would then rub the instrument on the belt with the same hand the touch the powder, and with the other hand he would touch different areas of your body. Sometimes he would ask you to cross your arms, or keep your arm separate of each other on the side of the table, same with your feet. My understanding is that through this practice, the doctors able to get heat readings off of your organs, and these he readings are used to measure the positive to negative polarity, and whether it's off-balance. It sounds weird, but like I said this doctor is nearly save my life on several occasions.
The particular day I went in with the breathing issues, the doctor proceeded with standard tests. Measuring the state of each of my organs. My liver/gallbladder was underperforming, was out of whack regarding polarity.
Doctor Novak instructed me to cut down on my fat intake immediately, start juicing and stay away from bred and sugar as long as possible. I was a 13-year-old kid, I never juiced anything in my life... My mom helped me change the diet. Within about 2 months of a very strict diet, the symptoms completely went away.
Fast forward to my mid 20s, started to eat poorly again. In fact I had been eating poorly for years. I started to have symptoms again, but this time in addition to shortness of breath I also was dizzy, experienced chest tightness, and back pain. My tonsils also started to become swollen, but not infectious. On one occasion, the symptoms were bad enough that I decided to go to the emergency room. After running several tests, monitoring my heart for sometime, and pumping me with meds they were not able to tell what was wrong. I wondered if perhaps I was experiencing something related to what I had experienced years ago when I was 13 years old. I did a lot of research online, and thought it would be a good idea for myself to get tested for Gerd. I had a scope down my throat, I'm sure enough I had acute esophagitis. Pretty standard for someone with GERD.
The doctors tried to put me on a PPI. After doing a lot of research, I'm looking at natural routes. I realized, Gerd for many people is the byproduct of an underperforming gallbladder. Body can't handle fats, acid just build up in your stomach. Nicotine and caffeine can also play a large role in Gerd symptoms. (I had noticed that with both nicotine and caffeine, my breathing symptoms would get worse)
The original diagnosis of my gallbladder when I was 13 years old was still the problem as a 25 year old. I change my eating again, I cut out nicotine and all coffee (still kept green tea but not black) and it took about 3 months. All symptoms were gone.
I believe it's the root issue, it really incorporated all of your comments. Anxiety and stress play into GERD. You can do breathing exercises to help control the symptoms, but anxiety is not the root. Some of you said sleep, lack of sleep also plays a big role in GERD, and also mental stability which affects stress, which effects GERD. Its a tangled web. It's perfectly normal to feel anxious when you can't breath. To those of you who have felt this, you can tell something isn't quite right in your body. When doctors can't tell you what's up, that's when things can start to feel little bit anxious.
The cool thing is the body is really smart, and with the right things it can fix itself. Do something drastic, go on a diet for someone with gallbladder disease (i'm not saying you have gallbladder disease, but this is the best diet you can go on if it is an issue with your gallbladder). Do it for three months and see if you're symptoms decrease.
Best of luck to you all.
I had this problem for over a year when I was 32-33. I've had it only sporadically a few times since. Until about 6 weeks ago I started having it much more frequently. The cause may well be anxiety in my case, as I have been experiencing recent financial stress. When I was 32-33 I saw no relationship to stress but I recall viewing 33 as 'mid -30s=middle age', and being dissatisfied with my status in life.
While I almost never seem to be able to equate an increase in immediate symptoms with anything other than thinking about the problem (SOB), I do think that underlying stress may well be a major contributor to my problem ALTHOUGH I wouldn't say it has to be anxiety-related. That's because I notice that hard exercise and lack of sleep seem to make it worse, and relaxing forgetting about the condition make it improve. Maybe some of us simply have a 'stress' threshold at which when we go above it this is how our bodies respond. Just a thought. Best to all.
While I almost never seem to be able to equate an increase in immediate symptoms with anything other than thinking about the problem (SOB), I do think that underlying stress may well be a major contributor to my problem ALTHOUGH I wouldn't say it has to be anxiety-related. That's because I notice that hard exercise and lack of sleep seem to make it worse, and relaxing forgetting about the condition make it improve. Maybe some of us simply have a 'stress' threshold at which when we go above it this is how our bodies respond. Just a thought. Best to all.
Thank you for this input reading it and watching some breathing videos on YouTube has really really helped me get better.
Good health.
Good health.
My little story, I was so scared I thought I had lung cancer.
I suddenly noticed I was yawning a lot but was not always able to get a full yawn which made me yawn more, one night went to bed I was stressed , family issues, and found I was gasping for breath , I was constantly yawning but coudnt get that full yawn, I decided I must rush myself to the hospital as I thought I was dying, horrible feeling being out of breath, anyway got up at 3 in the morning took the dog for a walk returned home slept on the settee,
Woke up my breathing was fine until I realised my previous nights issues, started yawning again! I was confused why was I ok immediately after waking up but as soon as I thought about the night before I started yawning again.
Anyway I googled my problem which put me onto numerous forums, what I
Relief I wasn't on my own, and I may not be dying of lung cancer, I read through and found some breathing technieces which I researched and watched on you tube, I have been using these for 3 days now and feel loads better, still have a need to yawn on occasions but feel confident I'm getting better.
I must say I'm a strong person never had these problems before always feel stressed with sales work, recently been extra stressed with my 17 yo sons, I've also been going the gym to get fit, may be the combination of all these things that started my breathing problem , not really sure.
Anyway to all out their this is horrible but very fixable with the breathing technieces, thank you to all whom has aired their stories as without reading these I would be in a very dark place now, hence my imput.
Best health.
I suddenly noticed I was yawning a lot but was not always able to get a full yawn which made me yawn more, one night went to bed I was stressed , family issues, and found I was gasping for breath , I was constantly yawning but coudnt get that full yawn, I decided I must rush myself to the hospital as I thought I was dying, horrible feeling being out of breath, anyway got up at 3 in the morning took the dog for a walk returned home slept on the settee,
Woke up my breathing was fine until I realised my previous nights issues, started yawning again! I was confused why was I ok immediately after waking up but as soon as I thought about the night before I started yawning again.
Anyway I googled my problem which put me onto numerous forums, what I
Relief I wasn't on my own, and I may not be dying of lung cancer, I read through and found some breathing technieces which I researched and watched on you tube, I have been using these for 3 days now and feel loads better, still have a need to yawn on occasions but feel confident I'm getting better.
I must say I'm a strong person never had these problems before always feel stressed with sales work, recently been extra stressed with my 17 yo sons, I've also been going the gym to get fit, may be the combination of all these things that started my breathing problem , not really sure.
Anyway to all out their this is horrible but very fixable with the breathing technieces, thank you to all whom has aired their stories as without reading these I would be in a very dark place now, hence my imput.
Best health.
I am a singer. I am suffering from pleurisy and mild pneumonia, had scans and there's fluid on the right lung... Was feeling better with rest, difficult when having a lovely 8 yr old daughter...... Anxiety has been getting worse..... I struggle in the morning especially waking with the pain.... I go to sleep fine but feel like I'm waking up a lot earlier cause of the pain..... So I was getting better, Ive cancelled gigs and had 1 gentle gig to do 2 days ago, the morning after the symptoms of sharp pain and annoying unsatisfactory breathing has been coming back... I've ordered high dose vit c to get into the bloodstream, liquid form and seeing how that will work. 2000mg a day. Would love to take more a day..... Looked into the buteyko method and not breathing as deeply as I usually do, shorter smaller breaths, but how will this help when I need to breathe deeply for singing.... Any help please? Will I feel these pains all the time now? Lovely comments from everyone
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