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What Causes Intermittent Shortness Of Breath?

Posted on Fri, 22 Jan 2016

Question: Hi I am XXXX, 26 years old.

Feel shortness of breath. Have trouble breathing occasionally.

I have this problem since childhood everyone has been telling me that its only in my head and not real but I dont believe them and I want to get it checked.

here are the patterns which i observed
1. shortness of breath increases whenever i have put on weight and I dont feel it much whenever I am regularly exercising. My weight is 72kg and height is 5ft 8in.
2. I have noticed whenever i am breathing hot air like the one in the after noon or I am sitting in a corner of the room with no flowing air then I easily get suffocated.
3. It gets very easy to breath and I just enjoy the moment whenever I am breathing in a cold weather/breeze.
4. I once noticed rubbing on top of my nose eases me in breathing but the effect wears off soon.
5. I dont snore when I sleep.
6. I easily catch cold. I dont have asthma.

Hope I have given enough inputs. Please advice what should I doing to be able to breath easily all the time.

Thanks!

Answered by Dr. Sandip Kabra (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Needs further evaluation but provide more information before.

Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX

Welcome to HCM.

I have read your query and understand the concern regarding shortness of breath occasionally.

I understand that you got shortness of breath only when you go into hot air like after noon or whenever you put on weight.

However,any case of shortness of breath should be further evaluated by complete clinical examination of respiratory system with some relevant tests but before discussing it further,I would like to ask

1) Do you feel palpitations during the breathing difficulty?
2) What is your blood hemoglobin level?
3) Can quantify the degree of shortness of breath on a scale of 1-10, it would be useful for assessment.
4) Have you needed any medical intervention yet for your occasional shortness of breath?
5) Do you get sore throat or upper respiratory infection easily? (like your cold)

Kindly get back to me with these answers,I will be happy to discuss it further.

Regards,

Dr.Sandip Kabra

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj

Follow up: Dr. Sandip Kabra (21 hours later)

1) Do you feel palpitations during the breathing difficulty?
- No

2) What is your blood hemoglobin level?
- Sorry, I wont be able to get this tested this week. May be I will go through the test and post a new question.

3) Can quantify the degree of shortness of breath on a scale of 1-10, it would be useful for assessment.
- its not like i am dying. its just annoying to have shortness of breath i will feel uneasy. i would say 5 out of 10.

4) Have you needed any medical intervention yet for your occasional shortness of breath?
- No, it improves out after sometime. the shortness feeling is not persistent. Deliberate yawning doesnt help though.

5) Do you get sore throat or upper respiratory infection easily? (like your cold)
- I have had sore throat but its very rare. I dont get it easily.

Thanks!

Answered by Dr. Sandip Kabra (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Then no need to worry.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for sharing more information.

From all your answers,I can say that there is nothing serious or any underlying disease of your shortness of breath occasionally.

It could be due to either hot weather or low hemoglobin for which you may need to check your blood HB level.

You need not to be worried about asthma or any other disease,however you may go for chest X-ray and pulmonary function test to rule out any respiratory disease to be in a safer side.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have more queries.

Regards,

Dr.Sandip Kabra

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj