Aa
shortness of breath/frequent yawning
I am a 41 year old female with a 2 year old, in good health other than being about 10 pounds overweight. Two months ago I began experiencing shortness of breath. I yawn constantly in an attempt to get air. The doctor thought asthma, especially given my family history of lung problems, so though my lungs sounded clear I tried advair/albuterol. No change in condition.
I had a ct scan to check for a pulmonary embolism and everything looked good. I have been taking previcid for 2 weeks to treat possible acid reflux, but there has been no change in my condition. I feel better when I sleep and wake up feeling great, only to have the sob return within a few hours.
A possibly relevant fact: the day before this started I was at yoga doing a twist when I felt a very, very sharp pain in my right side under my rib, along with a feeling as if a rubber band had been snapped in the same place. The pain was excruciating and traveled through my breast and shoulder, but was gone in a few minutes and I was able to continue class. Also, I was in the desert for a few days and it went away but returned about a week later. I fairly certain it isn't stress/anxiety as the trip out of town was not relaxing. The breathing seems better when I stand/worsens sitting down, and I may have been standing more than usual on the trip. I am feeling so frustrated, scared, and depressed.
I had a ct scan to check for a pulmonary embolism and everything looked good. I have been taking previcid for 2 weeks to treat possible acid reflux, but there has been no change in my condition. I feel better when I sleep and wake up feeling great, only to have the sob return within a few hours.
A possibly relevant fact: the day before this started I was at yoga doing a twist when I felt a very, very sharp pain in my right side under my rib, along with a feeling as if a rubber band had been snapped in the same place. The pain was excruciating and traveled through my breast and shoulder, but was gone in a few minutes and I was able to continue class. Also, I was in the desert for a few days and it went away but returned about a week later. I fairly certain it isn't stress/anxiety as the trip out of town was not relaxing. The breathing seems better when I stand/worsens sitting down, and I may have been standing more than usual on the trip. I am feeling so frustrated, scared, and depressed.
Hi..
my name is Rajingam, i have this same issue as you. i feel a little hard to breathe so it makes me yawn all the time, and even when i yawn sometimes i dont yawn properly so its irritating. i had check for every chest and even my abdominal call endoscopy and it was all fine. so i hope exercise is the only way. But i wanna try your medicine Rx-dexilant, does it really work????????
my name is Rajingam, i have this same issue as you. i feel a little hard to breathe so it makes me yawn all the time, and even when i yawn sometimes i dont yawn properly so its irritating. i had check for every chest and even my abdominal call endoscopy and it was all fine. so i hope exercise is the only way. But i wanna try your medicine Rx-dexilant, does it really work????????
btw, here is an article i found (a veeeery old one...about 1930 or so). the symptoms are described perfectly.
https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0021-8707(38)90466-6/pdf
https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0021-8707(38)90466-6/pdf
Hey, i have the same issues. I am a speech therapist and now study medicine.
I can remember it started since i was a kid, but it didn't appear every day. when i was 18/19 it started one evening, i had to yawn, to breath deep, to get the satisfaction of breathing. and then it never went away( i am 33 now).
i went to see the doctor. to cut it short: i hat lots of test, even medication for depression. nothing worked for me. i went to see a psychologist for a few years.
the it became a part of my life, i thought i could handle it.
now i have more problems, i think its because i have had worries over my ill partner. the more i think of my breathing the worse it gets.
as a physician and speech therapist i have some background knowledge and i read A LOT about the physiology, anatomy, case studies. the only thing that matches for me could be an alveolar chronic hyperventilation (my pCO2 is 33, this is to low).
so breathing excercises should actually work for me (but it is hard, you have to change your habits you learned for years)
i am now trying Pranayama, Buteyko (which at the moment is to difficult for me). Also i thought about other things:
Singing (to prolong your expiration),
playing an instrument (flute...which i played a long time but stopped because lack of time, i see a correlation with stopping playing while my symptoms started)
If something has worked for someone, please share it. thanks!
I can remember it started since i was a kid, but it didn't appear every day. when i was 18/19 it started one evening, i had to yawn, to breath deep, to get the satisfaction of breathing. and then it never went away( i am 33 now).
i went to see the doctor. to cut it short: i hat lots of test, even medication for depression. nothing worked for me. i went to see a psychologist for a few years.
the it became a part of my life, i thought i could handle it.
now i have more problems, i think its because i have had worries over my ill partner. the more i think of my breathing the worse it gets.
as a physician and speech therapist i have some background knowledge and i read A LOT about the physiology, anatomy, case studies. the only thing that matches for me could be an alveolar chronic hyperventilation (my pCO2 is 33, this is to low).
so breathing excercises should actually work for me (but it is hard, you have to change your habits you learned for years)
i am now trying Pranayama, Buteyko (which at the moment is to difficult for me). Also i thought about other things:
Singing (to prolong your expiration),
playing an instrument (flute...which i played a long time but stopped because lack of time, i see a correlation with stopping playing while my symptoms started)
If something has worked for someone, please share it. thanks!
I want to know have u got rid of ur problm, if yes then how please tell me as i have the same issue.
To original question. I had this symptom and YES it was pulmonary emboli (30 years ago). It took a while to diagnose as I didn't smoke and was young. I had them for a while. I had this symptom again last month, and it was also PE. I also had shortness of breath exercising. Caught much sooner (not doc misdiagnosis this time) but still not immediately as I also have asthma and I was a little in denial I think.
I think people and docs thought it was psychological for a while since they didn't test for PE. Since it eventually went away the first time and then reappeared 30 years later with confirmed PE, I can safely say it was not.
I am writing this as maybe others will see my post who have these symptoms. It's not the only cause of course. In the case of PE, your blood has too much CO2 which causes the symptoms even at a low level.
I think people and docs thought it was psychological for a while since they didn't test for PE. Since it eventually went away the first time and then reappeared 30 years later with confirmed PE, I can safely say it was not.
I am writing this as maybe others will see my post who have these symptoms. It's not the only cause of course. In the case of PE, your blood has too much CO2 which causes the symptoms even at a low level.
Hi I really don't have an answer for you I am doing the exact same thing and I just can't get any help. My family thinks I'm nuts. Any suggestions? Thank you.
I had this kind of breathing problem that I need to yawn to satisfy a breath and sometimes find a breath that can actually satisfy me. I first experienced this 2 days after waking up shaking from the cold weather. The first time i experienced this i panicked, i thought would pass out but i didn't. I went to the e.r. they took my high blood pressure and it was high ( maybe because of the panic). they made an ECG on me and the heart was fine after 3days with 2days meds. i had a lung xray and the docs comment was there were no problems except for the slightly swollen heart due to my high blood pressure. after almost 3 month I still have the problem. I went to another doc they made another ecg but the heart was fine gave me another set of meds for highblood but i discontinued then because my blood pressure went back to normal. Now i'm trying alternative medicine. I went to a reflexologist they said that it is full of "cold" which caused me to not breath comfortably. I'm trying to have my back and whole body treated with reflexology to find a cure for this. after some sessions it got better. i still have the problem but not as severe as before. some are suggesting ventosa, and acupuncture. I'll update when i'm done with this sessions.
I'm having a similar problem tight now.tightness in chest,when I breathe a pain under my chest bone feels like something is stuck.I went to the emergency many tines because I was panicking from not breathing correctly.also when I yawn or breathe deeply I notice the side of my ribs on both sides the air takes longer to go down.I started taking indomethician and after 2 weeks everything went back to normal then it all came back again.I been having this problem for 4 months now and it ***** and only seems to go away when I'm not thinking about it but I can't concentrate on my school work because of this cobdition.I'm now take something prescribed by my doctor because he says I might have hyper tension and in a month I should be better.its been 2 weeks now and I feel a little different a little better.
I am 22 female, and i have also been having the similar type of problem the only thing thatbscares me is the fact that i started smoking a few years back but this problem started only 10-12 days before..i thought that maybe it is due to congestion and it would go away as soon as my throat clears out but nothing seems to be helping me.. i'm very scared i don't want COPD or Emphysema or any other lung disease.. but i have not experienced any other symptoms relating to these diseases as such coughing or coughing out blood or pain while inhaling or exhaling.. i really don't know what it is ..this problem is neither getting better nor worse
I have been having difficulty breathing fo all my life since I was 9. I remember vividly when it all started. It was during PE classes when we all played soccer. In the middle I felt shortness of breath and I was brought To the nurse by my teacher who sent me home and I don't remember what happened afterwards. It was another episode when we were at the Girl Scouts and one of the girls had an epilepsy episode. I get so scared that I was rushed to the hospital that night because I couldn't breathe. Dr. said that I got scared and that's why I couldn't breathe because everything all the tests showed nothing. Ever since it would be worse before I got my period every month. I was also bulimic so when I was eating and vomiting I would feel constantly shortness of breath. In the past four years I have been lit reading a lot about hypoglycemia and I have learned that eating every three hours might solve the problem. It really did for me. I now have so much less of the shortness of breath. I wouldn't say it has been gone forever because I also exercise and walk in when I exercise I have to increase the carbs amount that I'm taking and I'm not really taking enough because I don't want to gain weight. That triggers the shortness of breath again in my case. Also stress contributes a lot. So whoever reads it , it might be worth the try to eat right every 2-3 hours in small quantities so your blood sugar doesn't suffer ups and downs. Good luck people. I am so happy to find out that I am not the only one
I just want to ask hows everybody? Im experiencing this shortness of breath and excessive yawning for years, i was reading almost all the poat here and i can get a clear idea, some says anxiety, acid reflux, hyperventilation, problem with carbon dioxide.level but more says they dont know what it is . How's everybody? Please.share your success story, share the things that helped you !
I have read through this whole thread, from the beginning. I believe what I have to say will help many people here. I have struggled with the same thing since I've been in child, I am now 26 years old. When I was 13 years old, I would lie awake in bed nearly all night, several days in a row. I feel like I could not breathe, I had the tendency to yawn and after yawning would feel better momentarily, but then it would get worse. My parents took me to the doctor, I was tested for asthma. I was also given allergy testing, but nothing worked. I did not have asthma, but the doctor gave me a sample inhaler. I tried to use it, but the problems persisted.
This is where the story gets interesting. I live in Kansas City, and several family friend highly recommended a nutritional doctor here by the name of Doctor Novak. He was trained as a chiropractor, but he also had an interesting practice of which I have not been able to find the name. I don't believe it is practiced any longer, but this gentleman nearly save my life on several occasions. Within this practice, the doctor will wear a belt and attached to the center of the belt (where you would see a belt buckle normally) is mounted a special instrument. It's flat, but in the shape of a circle. The doctor would ask you to lay on the table, and with one hand would dip into a pouch and touch a powder, with the same consistency of climbing chalk. He would then rub the instrument on the belt with the same hand the touch the powder, and with the other hand he would touch different areas of your body. Sometimes he would ask you to cross your arms, or keep your arm separate of each other on the side of the table, same with your feet. My understanding is that through this practice, the doctors able to get heat readings off of your organs, and these he readings are used to measure the positive to negative polarity, and whether it's off-balance. It sounds weird, but like I said this doctor is nearly save my life on several occasions.
The particular day I went in with the breathing issues, the doctor proceeded with standard tests. Measuring the state of each of my organs. My liver/gallbladder was underperforming, was out of whack regarding polarity.
Doctor Novak instructed me to cut down on my fat intake immediately, start juicing and stay away from bred and sugar as long as possible. I was a 13-year-old kid, I never juiced anything in my life... My mom helped me change the diet. Within about 2 months of a very strict diet, the symptoms completely went away.
Fast forward to my mid 20s, started to eat poorly again. In fact I had been eating poorly for years. I started to have symptoms again, but this time in addition to shortness of breath I also was dizzy, experienced chest tightness, and back pain. My tonsils also started to become swollen, but not infectious. On one occasion, the symptoms were bad enough that I decided to go to the emergency room. After running several tests, monitoring my heart for sometime, and pumping me with meds they were not able to tell what was wrong. I wondered if perhaps I was experiencing something related to what I had experienced years ago when I was 13 years old. I did a lot of research online, and thought it would be a good idea for myself to get tested for Gerd. I had a scope down my throat, I'm sure enough I had acute esophagitis. Pretty standard for someone with GERD.
The doctors tried to put me on a PPI. After doing a lot of research, I'm looking at natural routes. I realized, Gerd for many people is the byproduct of an underperforming gallbladder. Body can't handle fats, acid just build up in your stomach. Nicotine and caffeine can also play a large role in Gerd symptoms. (I had noticed that with both nicotine and caffeine, my breathing symptoms would get worse)
The original diagnosis of my gallbladder when I was 13 years old was still the problem as a 25 year old. I change my eating again, I cut out nicotine and all coffee (still kept green tea but not black) and it took about 3 months. All symptoms were gone.
I believe it's the root issue, it really incorporated all of your comments. Anxiety and stress play into GERD. You can do breathing exercises to help control the symptoms, but anxiety is not the root. Some of you said sleep, lack of sleep also plays a big role in GERD, and also mental stability which affects stress, which effects GERD. Its a tangled web. It's perfectly normal to feel anxious when you can't breath. To those of you who have felt this, you can tell something isn't quite right in your body. When doctors can't tell you what's up, that's when things can start to feel little bit anxious.
The cool thing is the body is really smart, and with the right things it can fix itself. Do something drastic, go on a diet for someone with gallbladder disease (i'm not saying you have gallbladder disease, but this is the best diet you can go on if it is an issue with your gallbladder). Do it for three months and see if you're symptoms decrease.
Best of luck to you all.
This is where the story gets interesting. I live in Kansas City, and several family friend highly recommended a nutritional doctor here by the name of Doctor Novak. He was trained as a chiropractor, but he also had an interesting practice of which I have not been able to find the name. I don't believe it is practiced any longer, but this gentleman nearly save my life on several occasions. Within this practice, the doctor will wear a belt and attached to the center of the belt (where you would see a belt buckle normally) is mounted a special instrument. It's flat, but in the shape of a circle. The doctor would ask you to lay on the table, and with one hand would dip into a pouch and touch a powder, with the same consistency of climbing chalk. He would then rub the instrument on the belt with the same hand the touch the powder, and with the other hand he would touch different areas of your body. Sometimes he would ask you to cross your arms, or keep your arm separate of each other on the side of the table, same with your feet. My understanding is that through this practice, the doctors able to get heat readings off of your organs, and these he readings are used to measure the positive to negative polarity, and whether it's off-balance. It sounds weird, but like I said this doctor is nearly save my life on several occasions.
The particular day I went in with the breathing issues, the doctor proceeded with standard tests. Measuring the state of each of my organs. My liver/gallbladder was underperforming, was out of whack regarding polarity.
Doctor Novak instructed me to cut down on my fat intake immediately, start juicing and stay away from bred and sugar as long as possible. I was a 13-year-old kid, I never juiced anything in my life... My mom helped me change the diet. Within about 2 months of a very strict diet, the symptoms completely went away.
Fast forward to my mid 20s, started to eat poorly again. In fact I had been eating poorly for years. I started to have symptoms again, but this time in addition to shortness of breath I also was dizzy, experienced chest tightness, and back pain. My tonsils also started to become swollen, but not infectious. On one occasion, the symptoms were bad enough that I decided to go to the emergency room. After running several tests, monitoring my heart for sometime, and pumping me with meds they were not able to tell what was wrong. I wondered if perhaps I was experiencing something related to what I had experienced years ago when I was 13 years old. I did a lot of research online, and thought it would be a good idea for myself to get tested for Gerd. I had a scope down my throat, I'm sure enough I had acute esophagitis. Pretty standard for someone with GERD.
The doctors tried to put me on a PPI. After doing a lot of research, I'm looking at natural routes. I realized, Gerd for many people is the byproduct of an underperforming gallbladder. Body can't handle fats, acid just build up in your stomach. Nicotine and caffeine can also play a large role in Gerd symptoms. (I had noticed that with both nicotine and caffeine, my breathing symptoms would get worse)
The original diagnosis of my gallbladder when I was 13 years old was still the problem as a 25 year old. I change my eating again, I cut out nicotine and all coffee (still kept green tea but not black) and it took about 3 months. All symptoms were gone.
I believe it's the root issue, it really incorporated all of your comments. Anxiety and stress play into GERD. You can do breathing exercises to help control the symptoms, but anxiety is not the root. Some of you said sleep, lack of sleep also plays a big role in GERD, and also mental stability which affects stress, which effects GERD. Its a tangled web. It's perfectly normal to feel anxious when you can't breath. To those of you who have felt this, you can tell something isn't quite right in your body. When doctors can't tell you what's up, that's when things can start to feel little bit anxious.
The cool thing is the body is really smart, and with the right things it can fix itself. Do something drastic, go on a diet for someone with gallbladder disease (i'm not saying you have gallbladder disease, but this is the best diet you can go on if it is an issue with your gallbladder). Do it for three months and see if you're symptoms decrease.
Best of luck to you all.
I had this problem for over a year when I was 32-33. I've had it only sporadically a few times since. Until about 6 weeks ago I started having it much more frequently. The cause may well be anxiety in my case, as I have been experiencing recent financial stress. When I was 32-33 I saw no relationship to stress but I recall viewing 33 as 'mid -30s=middle age', and being dissatisfied with my status in life.
While I almost never seem to be able to equate an increase in immediate symptoms with anything other than thinking about the problem (SOB), I do think that underlying stress may well be a major contributor to my problem ALTHOUGH I wouldn't say it has to be anxiety-related. That's because I notice that hard exercise and lack of sleep seem to make it worse, and relaxing forgetting about the condition make it improve. Maybe some of us simply have a 'stress' threshold at which when we go above it this is how our bodies respond. Just a thought. Best to all.
While I almost never seem to be able to equate an increase in immediate symptoms with anything other than thinking about the problem (SOB), I do think that underlying stress may well be a major contributor to my problem ALTHOUGH I wouldn't say it has to be anxiety-related. That's because I notice that hard exercise and lack of sleep seem to make it worse, and relaxing forgetting about the condition make it improve. Maybe some of us simply have a 'stress' threshold at which when we go above it this is how our bodies respond. Just a thought. Best to all.
Thank you for this input reading it and watching some breathing videos on YouTube has really really helped me get better.
Good health.
Good health.
My little story, I was so scared I thought I had lung cancer.
I suddenly noticed I was yawning a lot but was not always able to get a full yawn which made me yawn more, one night went to bed I was stressed , family issues, and found I was gasping for breath , I was constantly yawning but coudnt get that full yawn, I decided I must rush myself to the hospital as I thought I was dying, horrible feeling being out of breath, anyway got up at 3 in the morning took the dog for a walk returned home slept on the settee,
Woke up my breathing was fine until I realised my previous nights issues, started yawning again! I was confused why was I ok immediately after waking up but as soon as I thought about the night before I started yawning again.
Anyway I googled my problem which put me onto numerous forums, what I
Relief I wasn't on my own, and I may not be dying of lung cancer, I read through and found some breathing technieces which I researched and watched on you tube, I have been using these for 3 days now and feel loads better, still have a need to yawn on occasions but feel confident I'm getting better.
I must say I'm a strong person never had these problems before always feel stressed with sales work, recently been extra stressed with my 17 yo sons, I've also been going the gym to get fit, may be the combination of all these things that started my breathing problem , not really sure.
Anyway to all out their this is horrible but very fixable with the breathing technieces, thank you to all whom has aired their stories as without reading these I would be in a very dark place now, hence my imput.
Best health.
I suddenly noticed I was yawning a lot but was not always able to get a full yawn which made me yawn more, one night went to bed I was stressed , family issues, and found I was gasping for breath , I was constantly yawning but coudnt get that full yawn, I decided I must rush myself to the hospital as I thought I was dying, horrible feeling being out of breath, anyway got up at 3 in the morning took the dog for a walk returned home slept on the settee,
Woke up my breathing was fine until I realised my previous nights issues, started yawning again! I was confused why was I ok immediately after waking up but as soon as I thought about the night before I started yawning again.
Anyway I googled my problem which put me onto numerous forums, what I
Relief I wasn't on my own, and I may not be dying of lung cancer, I read through and found some breathing technieces which I researched and watched on you tube, I have been using these for 3 days now and feel loads better, still have a need to yawn on occasions but feel confident I'm getting better.
I must say I'm a strong person never had these problems before always feel stressed with sales work, recently been extra stressed with my 17 yo sons, I've also been going the gym to get fit, may be the combination of all these things that started my breathing problem , not really sure.
Anyway to all out their this is horrible but very fixable with the breathing technieces, thank you to all whom has aired their stories as without reading these I would be in a very dark place now, hence my imput.
Best health.
I am a singer. I am suffering from pleurisy and mild pneumonia, had scans and there's fluid on the right lung... Was feeling better with rest, difficult when having a lovely 8 yr old daughter...... Anxiety has been getting worse..... I struggle in the morning especially waking with the pain.... I go to sleep fine but feel like I'm waking up a lot earlier cause of the pain..... So I was getting better, Ive cancelled gigs and had 1 gentle gig to do 2 days ago, the morning after the symptoms of sharp pain and annoying unsatisfactory breathing has been coming back... I've ordered high dose vit c to get into the bloodstream, liquid form and seeing how that will work. 2000mg a day. Would love to take more a day..... Looked into the buteyko method and not breathing as deeply as I usually do, shorter smaller breaths, but how will this help when I need to breathe deeply for singing.... Any help please? Will I feel these pains all the time now? Lovely comments from everyone
Thanks a lot. Will try the Buteyko method and hope it works for me.
I am suffering from the problem from October 2014. I was medicated for asthama.but didnt work. then i tried ayurveda. even its not helping.
let me try this method.
thanks a lot
I am suffering from the problem from October 2014. I was medicated for asthama.but didnt work. then i tried ayurveda. even its not helping.
let me try this method.
thanks a lot
I am a 61 year old clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders. First, I'm glad to find this site. For as long as I can remember I've experienced mild SOB which is relieved by yawning (I have very little, if any, anxiety associated with this). I've asked a handful of physicians about it but none had experienced it themselves, nor had patients who complained of it. There are, of course, many different medical conditions that result in SOB, including anxiety disorders and pulmonary disease. Some posts on this site suggest panic attacks. I recommend looking up the DSM criteria for panic attacks and other anxiety disorders and, if one meets criteria, seek treatment with a clinical psychologist who uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However my primary interest is in the actual experience of the satisfying sense of a deep breath one achieves through yawning, or through a regular deep breath that does produce that feeling. I've noticed that the volume of air taken in is not necessarily related to achieving that feeling. I wonder if the feeling is a function of something (diaphragm, or bronchi) relaxing? Have any of the readers been told, definitively, what happens physiologically to produce that satisfying feeling? And I'm not talking about the chronic SOB which accompanies COPD, asthma, etc., just the phenomenon of having the SOB sensation be relieved by yawning.
Hi Salghu, may I ask how you run? How far, how fast, how you breath when you run.
Thanks for your thorough comments. I find running and bikram yoga to help a lot.
1 hour of running a day that's your medicine.
1 hour of running a day that's your medicine.
I would ask for a heavy metal toxicity test ...we are all being bombarded with aerial spraying, I am sure you can see the extraordinary skies, they have in fact said they are spraying toxins ,it is possible many of us are allergic to the stuff they spray ...look it up .anyway that's my theory now ...good luck look at the video 'What on earth are they spraying'
hi. i found this forum by googling my issue, yawning a lot and SOB. it's kinda comforting to know i'm not the only one struggling here. the first time i noticed having SOB was mid 2009. i was living my normal everyday life, then out of no where, i had really bad SOB. i almost went to the ER but it got better after like 30-60 minutes. it's happened on and off since then only lasting a day or two. but now i've had it for over a week and i'm yawning like every few minutes. it usually happens more so at night when i lay down for bed, but it happens also throughout the day. i've read it could be many thing and haven't yet went to the doctors for help. i'm not sure actually which type of doctor to go to first. i don't have a normal doctor i go to. should i try a primary care? or the hospital? i was on an anti-depressant the beginning of this year which caused me to stop breathing in my sleep. i woke up gasping for air, feeling dizzy and confused. i was taken off the medicine but i now as get freaked out about not being able to breathe at night. could it just be anxiety causing my yawning and SOB? i know when i yawn it usually helps the SOB for a moment but then it comes right back. i've been yawning so much lately i almost feel like i'm going to throw up now when i make big yawns.
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