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Everything You Need To Know About Dyspnea
Dyspnea is the medical term for shortness of breath. It can have a range of causes, from cold temperatures to cardiovascular conditions.
Dyspnea, which some refer to as shortness of breath, is a feeling that you cannot breathe enough air into your lungs. During this, you may also experience tightness in your chest.
This shortness of breath can be a symptom of health conditions, often relating to heart or lung disease. However, you can also experience temporary dyspnea after an intense workout or other physical activity.
Read on to learn more about the symptoms of dyspnea, its causes, and how doctors can treat it.
The main symptom of dyspnea is labored breathing. It may last for 1 or 2 minutes after strenuous activity. Or it could be a chronic symptom that persists over longer periods, according to the National Health Service.
In mild cases, you may feel like you are not getting quite enough air into your lungs. However, in severe cases, you may feel as though you're suffocating. Bouts of dyspnea may also bring on chest tightness.
Dyspnea that occurs after strenuous exercise is understandable. However, you should seek medical attention if any of the following occurs:
Exercise is usually a trigger for short-term dyspnea. Following strenuous activity, you may have trouble taking in enough oxygen to meet your body's demands.
In these cases, it is natural to need a few minutes to catch your breath. However, this will typically improve with rest, and you'll be breathing at your regular rate within a few minutes.
If you're at a higher elevation and you're not used to having less oxygen available, you may also experience temporary dyspnea. Be sure to consult with a climbing expert before making an ambitious high-elevation trek.
Dyspnea can also result from a wide range of health conditions. You should always treat conditions that bring on sudden breathlessness as emergencies.
Conditions that may cause short-term dyspnea include:
You may also experience sudden dyspnea if a piece of food or some other object blocks your airway. An injury that harms a lung or causes a rapid blood loss will also make breathing more difficult.
You may feel mild shortness of breath over a long period, rather than in severe attacks. If these feelings last more than 1 month, the National Health Service says that doctors may diagnose chronic dyspnea. This can often be the result of long-term underlying conditions.
Examples of chronic dyspnea causes include:
Asthma can be both a chronic condition and a short-term emergency. This can depend on the nature of your condition and the availability of an inhaler during sudden attacks.
If you have asthma, talk with your doctor about how to respond to symptoms and what you can do to prevent breathing concerns.
Treating dyspnea usually means treating its underlying cause.
Diet and exerciseIf having obesity and having a difficult time managing your fitness level are causing dyspnea, eating a balanced diet and frequently exercising may help reduce symptoms.
A small 2019 study concluded that moderate weight loss, even without exercise, can help people with obesity reduce symptoms of dyspnea.
If it's been a long time or you have a medical condition that limits your activity level, talk with your doctor about beginning a safe exercise routine.
Pulmonary rehabilitationCOPD and other lung conditions require the care of a pulmonologist, a doctor who specializes in the health of your lungs and respiratory system. You may need supplemental oxygen in a portable tank to help keep you from feeling out of breath.
A 2019 research review showed that pulmonary rehabilitation can also be effective in improving symptoms of dyspnea. This is a program of supervised exercise and education about breathing techniques to help you overcome lung disease.
Cardiac rehabilitationDyspnea is one of several symptoms of heart failure. If you have heart failure, it means your heart is too weak to pump enough oxygenated blood to meet your body's requirements.
Cardiac rehabilitation can help you manage heart failure and other heart-related conditions. In severe cases of heart failure, you may require an artificial pump to assist heart function.
Doctors will first assess your airways, breathing, and circulation to determine if you require immediate emergency care.
If this is not the case, they will conduct a range of tests to find the cause of your dyspnea. These may include:
During a physical exam, doctors will measure your pulse, rate of breathing, body mass index, and body temperature. A high temperature may indicate a fever is causing dyspnea, while an abnormal pulse may indicate an underlying heart condition.
A chest X-ray is often a first diagnostic step in determining if lung or heart complications are causing dyspnea. Doctors may also use computerized tomography (CT) scans during diagnosis. These scans can show:
If the tests above do not reveal the condition's cause, doctors may use echocardiogram and electrocardiogram imaging to assess heart function further. They may also wish to determine your overall lung strength and blood oxygen levels using lung function tests and pulse oximetry.
If you need help finding a primary care doctor, then check out our FindCare tool here.
Preventing dyspnea means avoiding or managing its many possible causes. The most obvious risk factor for shortness of breath is smoking.
If you smoke, consider seeking out a smoking cessation specialist or program in your community. There are many effective products and therapies now that can help you quit. It's never too late.
Other steps you can take to prevent dyspnea include:
Because unexplained dyspnea can be a symptom of a severe medical condition, you should always talk with a doctor about it. If you suddenly have other symptoms, such as lightheadedness or chest pain, you should seek emergency care.
If your shortness of breath is worse when you're lying down, it may be a symptom of heart failure. In this instance, you should contact a medical professional as soon as possible.
If you experience persistent coughing alongside dyspnea, it may be a symptom of COPD or pneumonia. Chills, fever, and coughing that produces phlegm are also symptoms of pneumonia.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs. It can be severe, especially in older adults, and can lead to hospitalization and even death without treatment.
Because dyspnea is a symptom, not a condition, your outlook will depend on how well you can manage or avoid its causes. Conditions such as COPD and heart failure are chronic, meaning you will have them for life.
However, improvements in treatment are helping people live longer and with a greater quality of life, even with these conditions.
The key is to follow your doctor's advice about treatment, regular checkups, and lifestyle changes that will help you breathe easier for a long time.
Read this article in Spanish.
Diagnosing COPD
Take a big deep breath in, up, up, up, up! Suck it in – blow hard! Blast out fast! Blow it out, blow it out, blow it out, blow, blow, blow. Breathe deep, up, up, up, up and catch your breathNarrator
Ed King is working hard to find out how well his lungs are functioning.Nurse
Let's do that again. Same thing.Narrator
He's doing a lung function test called Spirometry. Ed suffers from COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. It's progressive…getting worse over time and there's no cure.Ed King
You might have an easy day of breathing. The next day you get up, you may not have an easy day of breathing.Nurse
Breathe deep, up, up, up, up and let it go.Narrator
In patients like Ed…doctors follow disease progression and sometimes make treatment changes. Spirometry is an important tool in both monitoring and diagnosing COPD.David Schulman, MD, MPH
And with that we measure two things. The amount of air they can move in and out of their lungs and the speed with which they do it.Nurse
Blow HARD! Blast out fast.Narrator
Patients are asked to forcefully blow out as much air as they can in one second. That speed is referred to as FEV1 – or Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second.David Schulman, MD, MPH
One of the early signs of COPD is obstruction, is the inability to move air out as quickly as you normally should be able to do. FEV1 is a marker of obstructionNurse
Now take a BIG breath in.Narrator
The other measure is referred to as FVC – or Forced Vital Capacity.Narrator
After a huge inhalation, the amount of air that can be forcibly breathed out is measured.Nurse
Just a little further, all the way empty, all the way out…and take a big full breath in, up, up, up, up and catch your breathDavid Schulman, MD, MPH
The ratio between FEV1 and Forced Vital Capacity is the data point we use to determine whether you have obstructive disease or not.Narrator
About half of those with COPD don't know it…even though they may have symptoms such as shortness of breath, ongoing cough, wheezing or chest tightness.Narrator
That's why screening may be suggested if you're a current or former smoker over age 45…have a family history of Emphysema…or worked with chemicals or other lung irritants.David Schulman, MD, MPH
It's a disease that these folks live with everyday. It's slowly progressive, they don't appreciate the symptoms, and by the time they realize, wow, I am actually in a different place than I was a few years ago, it's often too late to do anything about it.Narrator
Since his diagnosis, Ed King has learned to live with his COPD.Ed King\t
You accept it for what it's worth, and you wind up with an attitude that generally don't let it whip youNarrator
Ed and his wife Joyce stay active…she gives him chores to do at home and continues to make travel plans.Joyce King
I just feel that he's done well, taken it within his stride. So have I, because that's the kind of people we are.Narrator
For WebMD, I'm Rhonda Rowland.","publisher":"WebMD Video"} ]]>
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Nurse
Take a big deep breath in, up, up, up, up! Suck it in – blow hard! Blast out fast! Blow it out, blow it out, blow it out, blow, blow, blow. Breathe deep, up, up, up, up and catch your breathNarrator
Ed King is working hard to find out how well his lungs are functioning.Nurse
Let's do that again. Same thing.Narrator
He's doing a lung function test called Spirometry. Ed suffers from COPD – Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. It's progressive…getting worse over time and there's no cure.Ed King
You might have an easy day of breathing. The next day you get up, you may not have an easy day of breathing.Nurse
Breathe deep, up, up, up, up and let it go.Narrator
In patients like Ed…doctors follow disease progression and sometimes make treatment changes. Spirometry is an important tool in both monitoring and diagnosing COPD.David Schulman, MD, MPH
And with that we measure two things. The amount of air they can move in and out of their lungs and the speed with which they do it.Nurse
Blow HARD! Blast out fast.Narrator
Patients are asked to forcefully blow out as much air as they can in one second. That speed is referred to as FEV1 – or Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second.David Schulman, MD, MPH
One of the early signs of COPD is obstruction, is the inability to move air out as quickly as you normally should be able to do. FEV1 is a marker of obstructionNurse
Now take a BIG breath in.Narrator
The other measure is referred to as FVC – or Forced Vital Capacity.Narrator
After a huge inhalation, the amount of air that can be forcibly breathed out is measured.Nurse
Just a little further, all the way empty, all the way out…and take a big full breath in, up, up, up, up and catch your breathDavid Schulman, MD, MPH
The ratio between FEV1 and Forced Vital Capacity is the data point we use to determine whether you have obstructive disease or not.Narrator
About half of those with COPD don't know it…even though they may have symptoms such as shortness of breath, ongoing cough, wheezing or chest tightness.Narrator
That's why screening may be suggested if you're a current or former smoker over age 45…have a family history of Emphysema…or worked with chemicals or other lung irritants.David Schulman, MD, MPH
It's a disease that these folks live with everyday. It's slowly progressive, they don't appreciate the symptoms, and by the time they realize, wow, I am actually in a different place than I was a few years ago, it's often too late to do anything about it.Narrator
Since his diagnosis, Ed King has learned to live with his COPD.Ed King
You accept it for what it's worth, and you wind up with an attitude that generally don't let it whip youNarrator
Ed and his wife Joyce stay active…she gives him chores to do at home and continues to make travel plans.Joyce King
I just feel that he's done well, taken it within his stride. So have I, because that's the kind of people we are.Narrator
For WebMD, I'm Rhonda Rowland.What Causes Lung Cancer In Nonsmokers?
Lung cancer is often associated with smokers, however, 10-20% of lung cancers occur in people who have never smoked or had fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. The culprit is often radon, an odorless, colorless radioactive gas found in soil, rock and sometimes water.
Radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Approximately 2,900 of these deaths occur among people who have never smoked.
Dr. Avani Mehta, a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at Advocate Health Care, explains how radon can cause lung cancer. "Radon breaks down into tiny radioactive elements called radon progeny. It can enter your body as you breathe. They may get into your lungs where they can give off radiation. This damages lung cells and may eventually lead to lung cancer."
People who work underground, such as miners, are the most likely to be exposed to radon. However, for those not in an underground workplace, the biggest risk of radon exposure is at home.
A radon test is often done during the inspection process when you are buying a house. A testing kit can be used if you don't know the radon level in your home.
"If the radon test has a result of 4pCi/L or higher, then it is recommended that you take steps to reduce the radon in your home and talk to your primary care provider about your level of exposure," says Dr. Mehta.
If you've been exposed to high levels of radon and regularly smoke cigarettes, your primary care physician will advise you to quit smoking as soon as possible.
"Those who have been exposed to radon and smoke cigarettes have approximately a 25-times higher risk of developing lung cancer than those who are nonsmokers," explains Dr. Mehta.
Your primary care provider will also perform a full clinical assessment and screen for signs of lung cancer. This may include a chest x-ray, low-dose CT scan or sputum test.
Regardless of whether you've been exposed to high levels of radon, are a smoker – or both – it's important to know what to watch out for.
Dr. Mehta notes that symptoms of lung cancer include shortness of breath, persistent cough, wheezing, coughing up blood and chest pain.
Take a free online quiz to learn your risk for lung cancer.
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