posted
It feels like I can't catch my breath. The only thing that relieves it is relaxing. Anyone else?
Posts: 830 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2005
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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Oh, yes. And, again, as with all muscles spasms, I find magnesium to really help.
Certain breathing exercises, as you have found, are also a wonderful help. Slowly, purposefully, relaxing breathing - in sequence to calming music. Yoga poses are also very good.
You might search on google for "yoga, diaphragm" - from those, here is one gentle video:
Here is a simple breathing exercise I teach my patients, a variation of the ones taught to me by Master Wang Yen-nien, former chairman of the World T'ai Chi Association. I give it to all my patients with lung problems:
Begin by lying on your back with knees elevated and feet on the ground.
Place a paperback book on your navel, Learn to breath diaphragmatically, through the nose, pushing down with the diaphragm on the inhale while relaxing the perineum muscle, the belly and the kidneys.
This will cause the book to rise up as you inhale if you do it properly. Breathe out through the nose in the same way, pulling the diaphragm up, causing the same body parts to gently contract, causing the book to go back down.
Breathe as slowly and deeply as possible, but without tension or discomfort of any kind. The tongue should rest lightly on the roof of the mouth. Time yourself for 10 breaths. This is your basic rate, usually about 5-15 breaths per minute.
Go as slowly as you comfortable can, but if you feel the need to breathe in faster the next time after a breath, it means you are going too slowly. No oxygen deprivation is allowed. Feel completely comfortable as you practice.
Keep this practice up every day until you can breathe 20 breaths in five minutes (in-out, in-out, in-out, in-out each minute), four breaths per minute. When you accomplish this, your oxygen capacity should be better upon testing.
nenet
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 13174
posted
Yes! I used to get these all the time. Now only very rarely.
I used to get them so much at night, I couldn't get any sleep. It would feel like my diaphram was spasming or jumping and then my adrenal glands would immediately go NUTS, like at the exact same time as the spasm.
My stomach/diaphragm area would literally move from them. I would get this surge of adrenaline and anxiety, out of nowhere, and it felt like a rush, from my diaphragm area up to my head.
Interestingly it seems to be aggravated by me eating gluten or potatoes/other inflammatory foods. Back when I used to eat gluten, I would eat a bagel or somethign and right with the first bite I would start hiccuping! Then at night the diaphragm/adrenal spasms would start up.
I tried gluten again last week and I'll be darned if I didn't get one again that night.
Just something to consider. Seems inflammatory foods can add to existing symptoms pretty easily.
posted
Lyme can paralyze the diaphragm and lead to intense respiratory distress, which is what I think I've been having in recent weeks. I'm doing IM Rocephin injections and they seem to be helping a little bit.
If you're not in treatment for neuro Lyme, this can be a symptom of nerve damage (to the phrenic nerve which controls the diaphragm).
Posts: 929 | From Massachusetts | Registered: Oct 2007
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
A warm... NOT HOT.. heating pad.. and don't fall asleep ... might help relax the muscles.
posted
My son developed this symptom about 10 weeks ago. It hits suddenly with no warning, and he is completely unable to inhale or exhale. Sometimes they are a single spasm lasting 10-60 seconds, sometimes they come in waves where he will be cramped for 45 seconds, get one breath and then cramp again.
This put him in the hospital when it first started - the cluster spasms were lasting over an hour at points while he went in and out of consciousness.
Posts: 263 | From Capital Region, NY, USA | Registered: Jun 2008
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posted
great posts!! will be forwarding this to mother in law, was diagnosed for her as "devil's grip" few yrs back, went on vioxx then had massive MI (pretty sure shes one of the vioxx folks but lawyer said no, past hx of smoking)
anyway-- n ow she is left with this "knots" along her rib cage edges, you can feel and even see them at times, uses tylenol arthritis. the flex creame i gave her has been helping
really think she has lyme and hoping she gets tested by LLMD before he drops ins. all together.
-------------------- i am not a Dr. any info is only for education, suggestion or to think/research. please do not mis-intuprest as diagnostic or prescriptive, only trying to help. **
dx in 08:lyme, rmsf, bart, babs, and m.pneumonia. Posts: 422 | From TX | Registered: Oct 2008
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posted
Thank you for the input. It feels like I am going to die during these. And my hands start to curl up uncontrolably. It is terrifying. It is good to hear that people get over it.
Posts: 830 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2005
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Carol in PA
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 5338
posted
Aliyalex, are you supplementing magnesium?
At least try it.
Carol
Posts: 6947 | From Lancaster, PA | Registered: Feb 2004
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then had massive MI (pretty sure shes one of the vioxx folks but lawyer said no, past hx of smoking)
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