Since I know everyone loves giving medical advice :p, I have a question ...

What are some reasons for a young, reasonbly fit woman to get episodes of chest pains and/or shortness of breath? Basically, at times I feel like someone is standing on my chest and I can't get enough air into my body. It freaks me out and I have to calm myself, lie down, and concentrate on my breathing. I get shortness of breath if I am climbing the stairs to my apt. while talking on the phone, but less so when I go for a run. Its also bad when I sit around consuming too much pizza and diet soda. Some occurances don't seem to connect with any particular activity. This used to happen every once in awhile, but is now more like once or twice a week.

I've been thinking everything from a panic attack to an artificial sweetener allergy to just plain hypochodria. If it was just chest pain, I'd guess heartburn from the dang pizza ... but the breathing is more of a problem. I haven't yet contacted my doctor as I can't really plan an 'attack'. My past doctors have disputed that I may have mitralvalve prolaspe, but I don't believe that has anything to do with difficulty breathing. I don't have any other medical conditions to speak of (other than a shellfish allergy ... no shrimp pizza for me).

Any ideas or similar experiences?

I have similiar issues. After being misdiagnosed with asthma and having inhalers do nothing for me, I was then told it was anxiety. I knew it wasn't that either, since I am familiar with how anxiety affects me physically. Finally I went to an ear nose & throat doc and had a larengoscopy (sp?) done. It was just acid reflux. Acid was coming up and burning my throat and that flap of skin that closes when I breathe in.
Anyway, I still have trouble if I'm naughty and eat too many tomatoes or chocolate.

Asthma?

See a doctor about it, please. :worried:

I have similiar issues. After being misdiagnosed with asthma and having inhalers do nothing for me, I was then told it was anxiety. I knew it wasn't that either, since I am familiar with how anxiety affects me physically. Finally I went to an ear nose & throat doc and had a larengoscopy (sp?) done. It was just acid reflux. Acid was coming up and burning my throat and that flap of skin that closes when I breathe in.
Anyway, I still have trouble if I'm naughty and eat too many tomatoes or chocolate.

Interesting. I would have never guessed that acid reflux would cause asthma-ish symptoms!

Asthma?

See a doctor about it, please. :worried:

Wouldn't asthma effect my running or have appeared before now? I don't know that much about it.

I know I should go to a doctor. I almost made an appointment for today, since I had the day off. I'm just so apprehensive about going for this sort of thing. Thoughout puberty, I had sharp chestpains ... but not the breathing issues. Doctors never found any reason for the pain. I ended up just feeling like I was wasting my parents money. I would have been satisfied with an 'its normal to experience this', but didn't even get that. Now I feel dumb going to the doc if my symptoms aren't obvious (fever, broken bone, etc.). :(

Wouldn't asthma effect my running or have appeared before now? I don't know that much about it.

I know I should go to a doctor. I almost made an appointment for today, since I had the day off. I'm just so apprehensive about going for this sort of thing. Thoughout puberty, I had sharp chestpains ... but not the breathing issues. Doctors never found any reason for the pain. I ended up just feeling like I was wasting my parents money. I would have been satisfied with an 'its normal to experience this', but didn't even get that. Now I feel dumb going to the doc if my symptoms aren't obvious (fever, broken bone, etc.). :(

Asthma was a wild guess on my part.

But symptoms don't have to be obvious to be present. Not to scare you or anything, but I remember reading an item in the newspaper about a woman who had a seizure or stroke or suffered some brain injury while riding on a rollercoaster. Apparently she had a blood clot or aneurysm or something in the brain which she didn't know about because she had no symptoms.

Going to the doctor will rule out possible causes of your problems, which means that other causes would have to be considered. At least it would be a step forward in treatment.

My two cents.

Acid reflux (miss is correct - it gives me the same feel as an asthma attack), asthma (I used to hardcore bike/run and my asthma only sometimes flaired up), not eating enough, a strained or pulled muscle (happens to me all the time, my breasts strain my chest muscles) anxiety, a chest cavity infection, a heart attack, and death.

So there you have it :)

anxiety can cause these kinds of symptoms. I don't know if you've had panic attacks but maybe you are having some more mild anxiety.

SOme symptoms of anxiety;

http://www.npadnews.com/anxiety-symptoms.asp

http://www.panic-anxiety.com/anxiety_symptoms/anxiety_symptoms.htm


Part of the whole anxiety thing can be over-breathing (known as hyperventilation). Apparently if you are taking in too much oxygen , the blood contains too much oxygen and not enough carbon-dioxide (hence the coomon suggestion of breathing in and out of a paper bag which gets more carbon dioxide into the blood).

Anyway , prhaps its that or the acid-reflux or other things. Best to at least go have the doctor check your heart-rate , blood pressure and just blood test for various levels of materials in the blood.

I did this over a year ago and he said I had excellent blood pressure and heart rate and also everything was good. However he seemed to know little about anxiety and told me what I was feeling was "all in my head" ...gee thanks! :-/


Interestingly one of the most interesting scources of possible triggers of anxiety can be found at this page;

http://users.chariot.net.au/~posture/HypochondriaWebpage.html


In essence, it may be that if you are sitting for long periods (and especiallyscrunching over work) it may cause various symptoms such as in those lists. Since I spend many hours a week doing watercolours and inking, I'm often sitting. Combined with sitting also at the computer I think there may be something to this whole theory (at least partly). in the last months , I've been standing at the computer quite a bit (I made a platform at that height ).

I have often thought about those ergonomic chairs that the seat is slanted and there is a knee-rest. They are suppose to keep one from slouching and have more upright posture which would most likely be beneficial.

I've actually been dealing with this as well. I also had a numbness in the back of my head accompanied with dizziness. After two emergency visits, and two appointments with my physician, they told me anxiety was the likely culprit. I was totally unaware of it. :dizzy:

I tried some stretching exercises from this site and found them to relieve some of my symptoms immediately: http://www.pressurepointer.com/pain_reference_chart.htm

In addition to that, I also did some breathing exercises as described here (middle of page): https://www.amsa.org/healingthehealer/breathing.cfm

Although I'm still experiencing episodes of shallow breathing here & there, I'm feeling healthier by the day and should be back to my old self soon.

I wish you the best!

http://users.chariot.net.au/~posture/HypochondriaWebpage.html


Interesting!

Strange that none of the doctors I met with mentioned this even though I told them I sit for long periods.

Since I know everyone loves giving medical advice :p, I have a question ...

What are some reasons for a young, reasonbly fit woman to get episodes of chest pains and/or shortness of breath? Basically, at times I feel like someone is standing on my chest and I can't get enough air into my body. It freaks me out and I have to calm myself, lie down, and concentrate on my breathing. I get shortness of breath if I am climbing the stairs to my apt. while talking on the phone, but less so when I go for a run. Its also bad when I sit around consuming too much pizza and diet soda. Some occurances don't seem to connect with any particular activity. This used to happen every once in awhile, but is now more like once or twice a week.

I've been thinking everything from a panic attack to an artificial sweetener allergy to just plain hypochodria. If it was just chest pain, I'd guess heartburn from the dang pizza ... but the breathing is more of a problem. I haven't yet contacted my doctor as I can't really plan an 'attack'. My past doctors have disputed that I may have mitralvalve prolaspe, but I don't believe that has anything to do with difficulty breathing. I don't have any other medical conditions to speak of (other than a shellfish allergy ... no shrimp pizza for me).

Any ideas or similar experiences?

MVP can be associated with panic attacks, and panic attacks can cause shortness of breath/difficulty breathing. MVP is also often associated with chest pain for which no cause can be found. People with MVP are often more sensitive than average to caffeine so if your diet soda has caffeine, that could make symptoms worse.

See a doctor (and this is coming from someone who usually avoids doctors when at all possible) and maybe ask for a referral to a cardiologist to find out if you *do* have MVP for sure.

Good luck. :)