Trouble Breathing

asthma or vocal cord dysfunction (vcd). could be vcd if it feels like air gets stuck in throat or the exhale portion of breath is difficult.

both could have relationship to or been aggravated by allergies/pollution to the point where you now notice/have them. go find a good doc to check it out.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try to make an appointment next week.

It's odd, because it seems like Zyrtec helps even when the pollen in non-existant. I'm wondering if it could be asthma after all...

Medications do not help, and they cause your breathing to get worse.

Gasping or taking deep breaths for more air is counter productive, as you're overbreathing and washing the co2 out of your cells, causing the condition that you're trying to avoid. Co2 is necessary in the cells for proper exchange and absorption of oxygen.

Notice people with asthma or panic attacks keep getting worse the more they hyperventilate and keep overbreathing, and then when they are finally exhausted and breathe normall, they recover. Asthmatics typically breath 6 to 10 times as much oxygen as healthy breathers, but they are washing out the co2, and thereby are not getting the oxygen to their cells.

Modern medicine is designed to load you up with drugs and keep you in a faulty breathing condition so they can keep you taking more and more drugs, a vicious cycle that is harmful and keeps you from improving.

The key is to take control of your own breathing, get off the meds and learn how to breathe properly.

If you have allergies the ragweed season is particularly nasty.

Ragweed is bad stuff.

Wearing a mask helps a lot and they are easy to run in.

I have asthma, and I take zyrtec every now and then to help manage it, particularly in the spring and summer. It just seems to help calm everything down.

Allergies are a moving target and can emerge later in life. Fall is prime time for mold allergies as fallen leaves play host to mold. Might need to check in with an allergist to see if there is anything new that is giving you problems.

It is also interesting that you mention anxiety. I have see that before. When you run by yourself, you are alone with your thoughts. If there is some unresolved major emotional issue in your life, it can cause an anxiety attack that will manifest itself as shortness of breath. A few trips to a psychiatrist can help get you past an anxiety issue.

Along with showering and hair washing before going to bed, and clean pillowcases/sheets. Hair collects the allergens, then you roll around in the allergens all night.

J.R. wrote:

Ragweed is bad stuff.

Wearing a mask helps a lot and they are easy to run in.

I wish you would come to my ER and tell that to my asthmatic patients. We could save so much $$ on all of these fake treatments that only seem to save lives! You're obviously very wise and have lots of experience with medicine.

"Gasping or taking deep breaths for more air is counter productive, as you're over breathing and washing the co2 out of your cells, causing the condition that you're trying to avoid. Co2 is necessary in the cells for proper exchange and absorption of oxygen."

--WTF are you possibly talking about here? Never in all my years have I seen such a moronic understanding of physiology. Yes, increasing RR will temporarily lower CO2, but it will absolutely not cause asthma or decrease oxygen absorption into cells... Go into any ER with that nonsense and see how well that works vs. our standard treatments.

To the OP- go get checked out. This could be any number of things. They'll likely test your heart, as well as test you for asthma and some other conditions, like anemia. If it were asthma, running faster could theoretically help if you are running fast enough to release catecholamines (adrenaline, etc) which actually work just like current asthma treatments, however I think this unlikely. If it is asthma, the medications are excellent. Go see a doc, don't listen to this anti-science BS from unqualified idiots.