Shortness Of Breath (the "sighs")?

[soulcurrent]

My GI said he didn't think it was related, but I'm not convinced. When I was 19 I started noticing that I was often having to take deep breaths to feel like I was getting any air. Now at 25 I feel it all the time, every day, and it's more like I have to sigh or yawn in order to feel like my lungs are getting what they need. I know that I'm not suffocating but it's not a comfortable feeling. It's not exactly a chest tightness but it's similar. I've had the pulmonary function and asthma tests, even went to a cardiologist for a while to rule out any heart conditions. Everyone says my lungs are working great but I still feel like it's not getting any better. I did smoke for a long time but I quit a little over 2 years ago (2 years, 9 weeks, 0 days, 14 hours and 12 mins and saved $3,410.79.. .but who's counting?) but doctors have ruled out complications from that. They almost all default to anxiety because I have a prescription for Xanax but I can tell you that it happens all the time, regardless of feeling anxious.

Sound familiar to anyone, or should I keep looking? I'm starting to wonder if another allergy might be the cause.

[ang1e0251]

I read a thread a while back where some posters said shortness of breath was a symptom they had when eating soy. Soy is hidden in a lot of foods. Maybe some of those folks will speak up again.

[RideAllWays]

I have had that for a few years, let me know if this is similar to you:

Not chest tightess or pain when breathing, but it feels like each breath in inefficient...like you need a huge gulp of air for your lungs to be satisfied? That's pretty much the only way I can explain it...sound familiar?

[soulcurrent]

  RideAllWays said:

I have had that for a few years, let me know if this is similar to you:

Not chest tightess or pain when breathing, but it feels like each breath in inefficient...like you need a huge gulp of air for your lungs to be satisfied? That's pretty much the only way I can explain it...sound familiar?

Yep, exactly. It's not so bad some days but today it's bad. The bad kind that makes me feel a bit panicked about it.

For a time I thought it was related to seasonal allergies, and thought that Singulair had an effect. I stopped it for a while and now that I'm on it again it doesn't help (though it does help my allergies otherwise).

[carsondcat]

Don't know if this helps but i was SOB too but not all the time, turned out to be low iron levels combined with low haemoglobin.........

[soulcurrent]

  carsondcat said:

Don't know if this helps but i was SOB too but not all the time, turned out to be low iron levels combined with low haemoglobin.........

The low iron would make sense, especially considering the timing...

[TrillumHunter]

Low iron does that to me as well. You'll find lots of us with anemia.

[soulcurrent]

I've had iron and B12 deficiencies for a while. Last time I had blood work the B12 was back up but no word on the iron. I'm due to have it tested again in a couple of months but in the meantime I'm still taking supplements on top of multi-vitamins.

[amberlynn]

Well, prior to going gluten-free, I yawned ALL the time. Since then, its almost ceased entirely. I always assumed I just didn't breathe deeply enough.

My iron levels, etc., are fine according to my last bloodwork.

[OliveBranch]

Soulcurrent-

Shortness of breath was one of my symptoms that was getting more and more annoying (though it never became dangerous) in the months before I went gluten-free. I also had pulmonary and cardiac tests to rule out those causes, and no doctor ever had any idea what was going on. They gave me an inhaler, but I never felt it made any difference. But, since the change in my diet, this problem has been steadily dissipating and has now nearly disappeared. It could be, in your case, that it is due to another allergy/intolerance (it's always good to look for those anyway), but there's also a good chance that this will go away on its own the longer you are gluten free.

I've noticed from a couple of your other posts that you and I have suffered many of the same symptoms -- I seem to be healing steadily, and I'm sure you will too

  soulcurrent said:

My GI said he didn't think it was related, but I'm not convinced. When I was 19 I started noticing that I was often having to take deep breaths to feel like I was getting any air. Now at 25 I feel it all the time, every day, and it's more like I have to sigh or yawn in order to feel like my lungs are getting what they need. I know that I'm not suffocating but it's not a comfortable feeling. It's not exactly a chest tightness but it's similar. I've had the pulmonary function and asthma tests, even went to a cardiologist for a while to rule out any heart conditions. Everyone says my lungs are working great but I still feel like it's not getting any better. I did smoke for a long time but I quit a little over 2 years ago (2 years, 9 weeks, 0 days, 14 hours and 12 mins and saved $3,410.79.. .but who's counting?) but doctors have ruled out complications from that. They almost all default to anxiety because I have a prescription for Xanax but I can tell you that it happens all the time, regardless of feeling anxious.

Sound familiar to anyone, or should I keep looking? I'm starting to wonder if another allergy might be the cause.

[Ahorsesoul]

I had forgotten this symptom! I always felt as if I needed more oxygen before going gluten-free so I did a lot of sighs!

[jerseyangel]

Before I was diagnosed, I frequently felt that I needed to take deep breaths and when I would answer the phone people would ask me what I was doing because I sounded out of breath. My doctor told me that was a symptom of anemia (I was quite anemic at the time).

[soulcurrent]

  OliveBranch said:

I've noticed from a couple of your other posts that you and I have suffered many of the same symptoms -- I seem to be healing steadily, and I'm sure you will too

That's actually quite comforting.. thanks!

[soulcurrent]

I feel like it's getting easier now.. For a few days it was really bad but I'm sure it was worse because I was thinking about it. I took a Xanax at one point so I would calm down. I think it was a mix of anxiety and maybe iron loss (my aunt was in town). I still have the issue but compared to those couple of days I feel much more normalized.

Thanks for the feedback!

[captaincrab55]

  amberlynn said:

Well, prior to going gluten-free, I yawned ALL the time. Since then, its almost ceased entirely. I always assumed I just didn't breathe deeply enough.

I'll second that.....

[Mysh]

shotness of breath for me is most likely to be anemia. I've even had it so bad, i thought I was having a heart attack.

[soulcurrent]

Eek

[VioletBlue]

It could be you've answered your own question. If your breathing improves when you take the Xanax and if anxiety is an ongoing problem for you, the anxiety could be the issue.

It helps to understand what happens when you breath. You breath in oxygen. The oxygen saturates the little air sacs in your lungs and the oxygen is difused through membranes in the sacs into the blood. The primary waste product in the blood, carbon dioxide difuses through the same membranes back into the sacs and is breathed out when you exhale. So you breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. The body needs a balance there however, with X amount of carbon dioxide and X amount of oxygen in the blood.

When someone starts to breath rapidly, as people tend to do when they're suffering from anxiety, the process can go haywire. Carbon dioxide can be expelled too rapidly from the body and a person could start to hyperventilate. Someone who is hyperventilating can have trouble catching their breath and may not be able to slow their breathing down, hence the breathing into the bag trick. You exhale into a paper bag and inhale from the same bag repeatedly so that you inhale more carbon dioxide and restore the balance needed to breath normally. Yawning or sighing can have the same effect.

Symptoms of hyperventilation can include chest tightness, numbness or tingling, balance issues, racing heartbeat and lightheadedness.

Also remember that anxiety is a symtom of Celiacs for many people here so I wouldn't be surprised if many Celiacs have a problem with hyperventilation at some point.

  soulcurrent said:

I feel like it's getting easier now.. For a few days it was really bad but I'm sure it was worse because I was thinking about it. I took a Xanax at one point so I would calm down. I think it was a mix of anxiety and maybe iron loss (my aunt was in town). I still have the issue but compared to those couple of days I feel much more normalized.

Thanks for the feedback!

[soulcurrent]

I think anxiety just made the problem worse for a day, but I'm convinced it's not the underlying problem. It's been going on since I was 18 and it happens day or night, no matter what I've got going on. The day I posted this topic it was worse than normal but that could've been because of allergies or something.. it was enough for me to notice it had increased. But from that point the more I thought about it the worse it got so I know *that* bit was caused by anxiety.

[Gluten Free Dee]

Wow I'm blown away by how many people have written in and share these symptoms that my daughter (undiagnosed) and I (diagnosed 17 years ago) both have. I call it air hunger, a deep longing for more oxygen. Now that I think about it, my bloated stomach would take up quite a bit more room than it's designed to. This wouldn't leave as much room for my lungs to function. I was always a thin, muscular girl growing up but my ribs are really big. Doctors would ask if I was a swimmer. They said it looked like I had great lung capacity. I don't and I wasn't. I just had a bloated gut most of my life so my ribs accommodated it. Even though I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 17 years ago this particular condition never really changed.

My 17 year old has deep, sudden, unexpected breaths that are not controlled by her consciously. Her heart rate was thought to be fast for someone who was in shape and so young. No doctor has been able to figure out the weird breathing thing. Do these type of breaths happen to anyone else?

[mushroom]

  Gluten Free Dee said:

My 17 year old has deep, sudden, unexpected breaths that are not controlled by her consciously. Her heart rate was thought to be fast for someone who was in shape and so young. No doctor has been able to figure out the weird breathing thing. Do these type of breaths happen to anyone else?

I, too, have these deep, sudden, unexpected breaths that I have no control over. I am not aware at the time of being short of breath (although I am chronically upon exertion because of COPD), but it seems like every ten minutes or so it "just happens" out of the blue. I once talked to my PCP about it, and she (she was a jerk) just kind of sneered/smirked and said "we don't consider that to be medically significant". (This was before I had a pulmonary function test--which she would not order--and I have never explored it further, figuring it was just COPD which I subsequently found out I have).

[Mysh]

I oftn feel like I just can't get enough breath and have to do a really big breath in but put this down to anemia.

[mushroom]

  Mysh said:

I oftn feel like I just can't get enough breath and have to do a really big breath in but put this down to anemia.

Is it a conscious big breath, or does it just happen??

[netteredl]

  Gluten Free Dee said:

Wow I'm blown away by how many people have written in and share these symptoms that my daughter (undiagnosed) and I (diagnosed 17 years ago) both have. I call it air hunger, a deep longing for more oxygen. Now that I think about it, my bloated stomach would take up quite a bit more room than it's designed to. This wouldn't leave as much room for my lungs to function. I was always a thin, muscular girl growing up but my ribs are really big. Doctors would ask if I was a swimmer. They said it looked like I had great lung capacity. I don't and I wasn't. I just had a bloated gut most of my life so my ribs accommodated it. Even though I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 17 years ago this particular condition never really changed.

My 17 year old has deep, sudden, unexpected breaths that are not controlled by her consciously. Her heart rate was thought to be fast for someone who was in shape and so young. No doctor has been able to figure out the weird breathing thing. Do these type of breaths happen to anyone else?

I am also surprised by how many people have shortness of breath or feelings of not being satisfied with breath. It is comforting to know that others have the same symptoms because my Doctors are not aware of this symptom and thought that I was putting to much emphasis on the "Breathing" because I am a Yoga teacher...well, wouldn't that make it easier for me to breathe? I am also very anemic and have malnurishment from not being diagnosed until 8 weeks ago. The breathing has improved, however, it will come back if I eat something with dairy or have something else that I am sensitive to.

Nette

[chilligirl]

I, too, have had this symptom for most of my life. It started when I was just a kid, around 10 years old. It comes and goes, but when it's present, can last for weeks, or even MONTHS. In my case, it had been written off as anxiety. I've been anemic off and on my whole life, so it could be related to that - nobody ever mentioned the possibility.

Either way it'd be great if it improved or went away with a gluten-free diet!