Shortness of breath

[mitchdee]

I find it's getting hard to breath at times. I can't seen to breath deep enough and I find myself.struggling. It like having a constant chest infection..any tips

[lmbanni]

Mitchdee my husband has breathing problems also. He started with them after the DBS surgery. We don't know if it is related. We did see a ear,nose and throat specialist and she said it was not related. We are always not sure to believe the doctors or not. You may know what I mean if you have had a lot of experience with them. lol!! Anyway, she gave him a nasal spray with steroids. She said it was due to allergies. He has been on it now for 2 weeks. He is a little better but not much. He had also started gaining weight and wondered if his belly was causing the problem. He tries to bend over to put on his shoes or socks and can't breath. He also felt that the extra weight was causing the problem but the doctor said that was not it either. She did tell him to try this spray for 2 months and go back to her if it did not get better. Two months seemed like a long time. I don't know...... He also has trouble breathing out of his nose sometimes. He has to open his mouth to breath out. Do you have this problem?

[Hikoi]

I asked a similar question a month ago. You may like to check it out and there is an earlier thread too. healthunlocked.com/parkinso...

I have been collecting information on this topic because i think it is largely ignored. There are likely to be a number of causes all related tp Parkinsons the most common being wearing off symptom when medication is low. PM me if you want more info.

[bigmama53]

Breathing properly is not something we do well whether you have Parkinson's or not. Shallow breathing is what we do normally and it is general in the chest compartment. I do Yoga and they teach you how to breath right from your stomach to your throat in sections. Try a Yoga class that focuses on breathing techniques. Here is a link which explains it better than I can en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujjay....

Also, I think swimming helps as you need to build lung capacity and more so with Parkinson's as you have try that much harder to get your muscles going. Let me know the outcome if you do try the Yoga.

[Coblrman]

I was diagnosed as having panic attacks. I've determined it is related to lack of sleep. They had disappeared for several months and then returned recently. It was at that time I realized my sleep had been dropping to finally I was only getting 4-5 hours a night. I got the sleep more under control and the breathing problems disappeared again.

[harding55]

I feel short of breath most of the time, I find my mouth is always hanging wide open. I need how to breath deeply so that I can relax. I think that is part of my anxiety/panic attacks.

[Calusa]

My husband has the same thing. He has to take Ativan .5 mg about 6 to 8 times a day. The 1mg would put him to sleep, so he takes only a half dose with his sinement. He also uses an oxygen concentrator at night for sleep apnea with a nasal cannula. The Ativan works. Also the big speech therapy helps. Practice singing loud in shower.

[Crbee3]

i am sure these are from lack of sleep. I never had them until the DBS surgery. I have got to learn to go to bed at a decent hour...but when i get on a roll, i don't seem to keep my eye on the time... i have always been a go getter, and learning to slow down is not something i want to do... I am different now in a lot of ways

[Crbee3]

con't... so when don't get enough sleep, I feel like my heart of beating outside my chest, then my eye sight is blurred and I am cold... then I sleep for hours and sometimes days to get back to my new normal. I may not be the same person I was before surgery, however; I am so much better than I ever thought possible.. it is just like being a teenager, you're learning new things about yourself every day, what you can do and things you aren't able to do anymore.. I just happen to be learning them at 50.

[margie]

Please talk to your doctor about this. I have asthma and I find myself breathing short breaths and my voice gets very low especially towards evening. I try to take a few deep breaths after my shower. I place my hands on my belly and try to take a deep breath feeling it in my belly. It helps me sleep better as well. I have dry eyes and dry mouth.

[quirkyme]

Crbee3, do you mean LSVT Big and Loud?

Sometimes anxiety and stress can make you feel short of breath. I'm busy trying

to de-stress our lives. Also my husband's sleep apnea machine has, in some ways,

retrained him in breathing. Yoga and meditation help, too.

[Lindylanka]

Also have this problem, it was there before diagnosis, and went away with treatment, but after around 8 years when it was not a problem suddenly returned in cold weather winter before last. I have a kind of anaemia and thought it might be that, but more recently have linked it to wearing off. I know I should be exercising a lot more, and this a big deterrent. Interesting comments on sleep; I have thought sometimes I do worse on days that follow a night of very little sleep, maybe a diary would help me to see whether in fact this is happening. I do wonder about whether it is something else, and PD is just a co-factor.

[froggatt55]

Hi mitchdee

I breathe in short gasps and find it very difficult to control. I still do lots of exercise - recently started boxing training as I want something more intense (I am 70 next year and was dxd 11 years ago) and listening to my breathing whilst exercising sounds like my last gasps! I can only breathe deeply when I consciously think about it - and only effectively when I am lying on my back with my arms stretched above my head (that's how I recover during exercising). That allows my diaphragm to open and I breathe deeply and easily

I have not had DBS and when I have poor sleep it doesn't seem to be any worse. My middle is not as flat as I would like so could be part of the cause.

I actually suspect that our diaphragm muscles are just another set of muscles that are affected by PD and by concentration and training we can keep them working

I don't have the discipline but the diary suggestion by LIndyLanky is an excellent one and I know I should keep one - as should all PwP - because it would help enormously if we could link our symptoms to the changes that happen to us all

Kind regards