- Messages
- 70
Is there any specific test that can be done for this shortness of breath? I am mainly interested in a test that can show there is something wrong with the lungs or with breathing...
Treatment for shortness of breath (air hunger)?
- Thread starter DoubleBubble
- Start date
-
- Tags
- air hunger dysautonomia image
I've had pulmonary function tests where they check lung capacity to take in air by volume; cardio pulmonary tests, where they use a stationary bike to stress both lungs and heart to check for any issues; even a diaphragm sound test, where they stuck a long needle with a microphone in my side to listen to that muscle work. All came out great, but I still have air hunger.
When you tell the doctors about 'shortness of breath' their first question is 'do you smoke'? then they look for asthma and bronchial constriction. ME/CFS has none of that, so make sure they don't just dismiss your gasping for air as one of those.
When you tell the doctors about 'shortness of breath' their first question is 'do you smoke'? then they look for asthma and bronchial constriction. ME/CFS has none of that, so make sure they don't just dismiss your gasping for air as one of those.
Last edited:
Here is another possibility. Physical activity, mental or emotional stress, or dieting, can fatigue the HPA axis. This results in reduced production of cortisol and other hormones. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) due to hormonal disruption can cause severe and chronic shortness of breath, and tightness of the chest with back pressure. A low blood sugar level can cause severe symptoms without registering as abnormal in medical tests.
gregh286
Senior Member
- Messages
- 979
- Location
- Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Yes it's a tough one. It's been a symptom of mine for 10 years. Severity correlates with cfs score.
Always 98 or 99% saturated as well. No wheezing...there's no blockage.
Cells not uptaking O2. Basically histotoxic hypoxia. Poor exchanges of blood gases.
Tissues are deprived yet blood o2 is ok
Really sums up cfs. Tissue deprived oxygen. Cells go anaerobic in absence of o2..lactate ensues. System slows up due to increasing lactate and vicous cycle continues.
Chronic hypoxia syndrome.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histotoxic_hypoxia
Last edited:
gregh286
Senior Member
- Messages
- 979
- Location
- Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
And lo and behold if you throw sugar into the mix when your hypoxic...what a fckin pantomime. You get a wild racing heart. I think the sugar in cells has no o2 to bind to and get shunted back into system poisonously
Had a diagram test as well. All that stuff. Had above average on the blow test with harsh air hunger at time.
I find for me best cure is nil food by mouth and about 4 litres of sparkling mineral water over the day. Seems to help clean out the blood from whatever body is seeing as the hypoxic trigger
Read about how it's disables atp production
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topic...and-pharmaceutical-science/histotoxic-hypoxia
Had a diagram test as well. All that stuff. Had above average on the blow test with harsh air hunger at time.
I find for me best cure is nil food by mouth and about 4 litres of sparkling mineral water over the day. Seems to help clean out the blood from whatever body is seeing as the hypoxic trigger
Read about how it's disables atp production
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topic...and-pharmaceutical-science/histotoxic-hypoxia
Last edited:
- Messages
- 70
I have done a spirometry test though years ago but nothing came wrong...
Ive learned a lot from some docs the past few months and seeing patients.
Ive come to learn that almost all cases (and every case Ive seen) of air hunger are cause by (1) babesia, (2) mold, (3) general lyme infection. I’d start with those.
My current doc diagnosed me with babesia the first 5min of my first appointment from that symptom alone and she was correct
Ive come to learn that almost all cases (and every case Ive seen) of air hunger are cause by (1) babesia, (2) mold, (3) general lyme infection. I’d start with those.
My current doc diagnosed me with babesia the first 5min of my first appointment from that symptom alone and she was correct
Methyl90
Senior Member
- Messages
- 282
Wheezing, on the other hand, what is it related to?
Sophiedw
Senior Member
- Messages
- 384
My illness is weird and responds well to supplements. Manganese used to get rid of my air hunger. Now I am in a different phase and when I take malic acid it makes me exceptionally breathless and like I might pass out (weird) my assumption was it was driving krebs and making me run out of free iron. (Glutathione and iron are cofactors between isocitrare and alpha ketoglutarate - or somewhere round there I think). I think liver and iron helped me with that.
All the best
All the best
Methyl90
Senior Member
- Messages
- 282
I have the same reaction with succinate acid and apple cider vinegar ... What you say definitely makes sense. I noticed that rice helps my reputation for air if well cooked ... probably some manganese is there. Regarding the liver I consume it once a week but it also has a lot of zinc and copper fifteen among the nutrients.
Here is another possible perspective. I have to avoid apple cider vinegar and malic acid due to histamine intolerance. They give me shortness of breath. These links might be of interest:
https://healthfully.com/419366-allergic-reactions-to-malic-acid.html
https://mastcell360.com/healthy-foo...activation-syndrome-or-histamine-intolerance/
"Both maleic acid and succinic acid enhance anaphylactic histamine release from guinea pig lung in vitro–the degree of enhancement being of the same order of magnitude."
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-1716.1973.tb05469.x
https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-malic-acid-and-maleic-acid/
I had wheezing as a child. There are lots of causes.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/15203-wheezing
Methyl90
Senior Member
- Messages
- 282
@dave11 I want to think that every day the homeostasis of these reactions undergoes a change and what happened yesterday probably will not happen the next day ... beyond that as my methylation is settling apple cider vinegar does not give me plus that air hunger / shortness of breath reaction. Considering that histamine receptors are in every organ and that if methylation is low then histamine in general tends to be high ... I'm not surprised what I've noticed about myself. Both malic acid and succinic acid are also products of the krebs cycle ... if we push the cycle it can create further bottlenecks around. This is obviously my general experience 
... sulfur seems to worsen the asthmatic state, copper improves it and they are actually antagonists.
... sulfur seems to worsen the asthmatic state, copper improves it and they are actually antagonists.Potassium used to help my shortness of breath and air hunger.
Now it's calcium.
https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780190862800.001.0001/med-9780190862800-chapter-77
Now it's calcium.
https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780190862800.001.0001/med-9780190862800-chapter-77
- a. Symptoms include paresthesias of the lips and extremities, muscle cramps, and in severe cases, tetany, laryngospasm with wheezing, or life-threatening stridor.
Methyl90
Senior Member
- Messages
- 282
Correct but as you specified the symptoms along with shortness of breath are wider .. very often in combination. Also using potassium alone is not a walk in the park ... it happened to me at night and only 50mg potassium gluconate destroyed my stomach ... there is an ionic formula in drops that can be purchased in the UK on the metabolics website which is very practical.
As for calcium, I personally have always had an increase in heart rate ... since it also acts on glutamate it could be a cause or an excess ... or it does not enter the cells and accumulates by imitating an excess.
Last edited:
I've never had trouble with potassium gluconate powder mixed in water except with high doses.
When I first started calcium chelate, there were some effects that possibly could have been 'start up', or
that it was lowering phosphorus which may have been elevated from calcium deficiency.
Elevated heart rate, low heart rate, elevated bp, low bp can occur with calcium deficiency.
Sophiedw
Senior Member
- Messages
- 384
Always of interest, always. God bless these forums (I’m not sure im religious) but someone bless them.
gregh286
Senior Member
- Messages
- 979
- Location
- Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
I got to bottom of my air hunger.
Bizarrely....like everything in this disease its not easy path.
So it increased with gluten but after gluten omission still it can persist.
Then it still comes with vodka or whiskey (supposedly gluten free as its distilled out). Also yeast extract can cause it.
So anything that began life in a wheat field is eligible....or a barley field or rye...any grain.
Safe list rice and potato.
Missing a grain breakdown enzymes? Who knows.
Whatever is taken out is not enough still react.
All the science of the day can say gluten out...gliandin out...still the trigger is pulled.
Grain out. Whatever form she takes.
gregh286
Senior Member
- Messages
- 979
- Location
- Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
I forgot to write yeast extract pretty much evident in so much.
Crisps for sure....even chicken pieces in supermarket. Flavoured meats....its like a plague for me.
Crisps for sure....even chicken pieces in supermarket. Flavoured meats....its like a plague for me.
Kadar
Senior Member
- Messages
- 156
+1 for potassium. Potassium, b1, manganese, vitamin A, zinc - they all help to rise potassium absorption. I proved it to myself with my experience. If your adrenals experience stress - there're million reasons (infection/insulin intolerance/lots of sugar/heavy metals/overworking physically and mentally/etc) they have difficult time retaining electrolytes (including potassium) in the body
Or it could be anemia - then iron, vitamin C and b vitamins (especially b6, folate, b12 and biotin) might be needed
Or it could be anemia - then iron, vitamin C and b vitamins (especially b6, folate, b12 and biotin) might be needed
Last edited: