Many people have breathing difficulties including myself. This is something I wanted to learn more about, so I proceeded to find out what are the causes.
There are several symptoms that people have when they cannot breathe properly. Some of the symptoms are gasping for air, feeling of tightness in the chest area, coughing, and wheezing.
In essence, breathing difficulties may be due to any condition that affects the airflow into and out of the lungs. Breathing difficulties can occur during rest or sleep or at any time during the day.
Causes for breathing problems can occur because a person is overweight. These people experience difficulty when there is too much exertion for them. If a person is very obese, the brain-stem breathing center may not function efficiently, and this can cause irregular breathing. This type of breathing problem is known as pickwickian syndrome.
My very close friend has this problem. It is due to extreme obesity, which caused her to have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can be very serious. It has caused people to stop breathing during their sleep. I have known someone who has died due to this situation. The good news is that there is a certain device that has been developed that can help breathing during sleep. Also, it is encouraging to know that when a person loses weight, the breathing problem disappears.
Another cause for breathlessness is when there is a shortage of red blood cells in the body. This condition is known as anemia. This means that there is insufficient hemoglobin to carry oxygen around the body. If anemia is severe, the lungs need to work harder to supply the body with oxygen. This is what causes the breathing problem.
Circulation disorders can cause breathing difficulties. This can be caused by a reduced circulation of blood through the lungs. This may be due to heart failure, caused by the heart pumping blood less efficiently.
A more common problem for breathing difficulty is caused by chronic bronchitis. Breathing becomes difficult in this case because mucus and thickened walls block the airways.
Lung cancer causes a constriction of the lungs, where normal breathing is difficult. Breathing difficulty may also be due to damage of the lung tissue, which may be temporary as in pneumonia. A collapsed lung is caused by fluid in the lung, which also causes problems. Lung damage can also be permanent as in emphysema. This is when the walls are destroyed.
Now that I have discussed problems of breathing, it is important to know when a doctor should be called immediately. If there is severe breathing difficulty, and if there is a bluish coloring around the lips, this is an emergency.
If you have pain when breathing, and have a fever and a cough, this can be pneumonia or acute bronchitis. This can be very dangerous if a person is elderly, very young or in poor health. A physician must be called immediately.
If there seems to be no serious problems, then the best way is to do breathing exercises. This is where a physical therapist can help.
Source: The American Medical Association, Encyclopedia of Medicine