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optimistic, for once in my life (!)
Mar. 14th, 2003 01:55 amHmm. I have had half a day of trying to breathe at 1/4 my usual rate, and I am in substantially less pain. There might be something in this.
To answer everyone's questions at once: the reason I feel as though I'm suffocating is that I've been breathing quickly and shallowly my entire life. This is why it's hyperventilation occulta - the hyperventilating isn't obvious even to me. It's not like the kind of hyperventilating when you panic, so breathing into a paper bag isn't going to help - it's hyperventilating over months and years, not minutes. I have to completely retrain my muscles and/or lungs to do something different.
The reason for my physical fatigue and muscle weakness is that for months and months now my muscles have been not getting enough oxygen, thus respiring anaerobically, and thus building up an excess of lactic acid. Most people are familiar with lactic acid buildup from exercising - well, this is like that on a grand scale. You get into a pattern whereby you breathe incorrectly and start to feel pain because of it, and the pain stresses your body and makes you continue to hyperventilate, and this spirals and spirals until it's completely out of control. I was rather unconvinced by the diagnosis because it seemed to be trivialising the problem, but the resources I've found about chronic hyperventilation syndrome suggest that yes, it's a very real problem, and if it goes on for long enough it can be as disabling as the problems I've had. ( More stuff about diagnosis. )
The other other thing is that in some of the articles I've read about chronic fatigue syndrome which have talked about it actually being a catch-all term for a huge variety of problems, chronic hyperventilation has been suggested as causing some small percentage of CFS cases. I completely ignored that when I was reading them before because I thought I knew what hyperventilating was and didn't think it had anything to do with me. Hrm.
( What to do about it. )
To answer everyone's questions at once: the reason I feel as though I'm suffocating is that I've been breathing quickly and shallowly my entire life. This is why it's hyperventilation occulta - the hyperventilating isn't obvious even to me. It's not like the kind of hyperventilating when you panic, so breathing into a paper bag isn't going to help - it's hyperventilating over months and years, not minutes. I have to completely retrain my muscles and/or lungs to do something different.
The reason for my physical fatigue and muscle weakness is that for months and months now my muscles have been not getting enough oxygen, thus respiring anaerobically, and thus building up an excess of lactic acid. Most people are familiar with lactic acid buildup from exercising - well, this is like that on a grand scale. You get into a pattern whereby you breathe incorrectly and start to feel pain because of it, and the pain stresses your body and makes you continue to hyperventilate, and this spirals and spirals until it's completely out of control. I was rather unconvinced by the diagnosis because it seemed to be trivialising the problem, but the resources I've found about chronic hyperventilation syndrome suggest that yes, it's a very real problem, and if it goes on for long enough it can be as disabling as the problems I've had. ( More stuff about diagnosis. )
The other other thing is that in some of the articles I've read about chronic fatigue syndrome which have talked about it actually being a catch-all term for a huge variety of problems, chronic hyperventilation has been suggested as causing some small percentage of CFS cases. I completely ignored that when I was reading them before because I thought I knew what hyperventilating was and didn't think it had anything to do with me. Hrm.
( What to do about it. )
