hyperventilation?!

[baratron]

Now that was... not what I was expecting.

My doctor reckons that 90% of the symptoms I've been complaining about are due to something called hyperventilation occulta, or unseen hyperventilation. I am unconvinced. Exceedingly unconvinced. But reading about it on the web, it does seem to be a real thing.

I didn't think I hyperventilated, but apparently you're only supposed to breathe 12-14 times per minute. What? I normally breathe at least once per second. You mean that's not normal? I'm sitting here now trying to breathe only through my nose, and finding it really damned hard - I think normally I breathe through my nose and mouth together. I feel as though I'm not getting enough oxygen, and desperately wanting to open my mouth and gasp for breath, but apparently that's the worst thing I could do.

How am I supposed to learn to breathe a different way? (Semi-rhetorical question - one of the links above talks about a course for people with asthma to learn to stop hyperventilating). Huh.

Comments

[submarine-bells.livejournal.com]

Wow. This is really interesting. I've just bounced the details on to a sweetie of mine who is currently wrestling with a heap of medical hassles that include substantial chest pain. He has not been successful in getting a diagnosis (despite have undertaken a raft of tests that have shown nothing), and is starting to get rather frustrated by the whole exercise. I'd never heard of this hyperventilation syndrome before, and it does sound like it might be another avenue to explore. Thanks for raising it here!