Health Blurbs

Hyperventilation is breathing in more than your body needs. Hyperventilation syndrome is hyperventilating under certain circumstances.

Hyperventilation often occurs with anxiety or panic.  Frequently, panic and hyperventilating become a vicious cycle because panic leads to overbeathing and breathing too much causes a panicked feeling.

Feeling very anxious, nervous or during a panic attack are the usual causes for hyperventilating.  However, you may hyperventilate as a symptom of a health condition, such as:

• stress
• bleeding
• pregnancy
• stimulants
• severe pain
• heart attack
• ketoacidosis
• asthma attack
• Rett syndrome
• aspirin overdose
• motion sickness
• congestive heart failure
• infection ~ pneumonia, sepsis
• lung disease ~ COPD, pulmonary embolism

Witnessing a traumatic event may cause you to hyperventilate as well.

Hyperventilating can be caused by something very serious going on with your health.  Thus, treat an inexplicable episode of hyperventilation as an emergency situation.

If you frequently over breathe, you may have hyperventilation syndrome. Although hyperventilation syndrome may seem like a panic attack, they are different.

A panic disorder is coupled with emotional complaints of fear or phobias, i.e. heights, dying or claustrophobia. Hyperventilation syndrome happens in the absence of these emotions.

If you have hyperventilation syndrome you may not notice you’re overbreathing, but you’ll be aware of other symptoms, like:

• fainting
• bloating
• belching
• agitation
• confusion
• dizziness
• weakness
• dry mouth
• chest pain
• palpitations
• lightheadedness
• muscle twitching
• shortness of breath
• hand & foot muscle spasms
• feeling like you can’t breathe
• being outside yourself feeling
• numbness, tingling in arms, around mouth

When you hyperventilate, it causes your blood carbon dioxide and calcium levels to drop. These lowered levels are what’s causing your nervous system and emotional issues.

So when you start to hyperventilate, the treatment is to raise your blood’s carbon dioxide level. Here are a couple treatment methods:

• breathe through pursed lips
• get reassurance from others to help relax your breathing
• breathe into and out of a bag ~ this causes you to re-breathe carbon dioxide
• cover your mouth & one nostril so that you are only breathing through one nostril

For some, aerobic exercise can be a healthy hyperventilate over-breathing treatment for hyperventilation syndrome. Have a run at the next onslaught to discover if it benefits your breathing health.

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