breathing probs

[dannyday5821]

at the start of feb i had some kind of wierd breathing problem that came on totally randomly - was like i couldnt take enough air in and couldnt exhale normally. It was worse whenever i laid on my sides to try and go to sleep - i also got tight chested - anyways went to the dr and he gave me sabutamol inhaler which actually worked well - got rid of the tighness although breathing still isnt back to normal.

today - i had another episode - my breathing wasnt so bad but my heart was beating very strongly - not as fast as normal but strong - and my stomach felt queesy - i laid down and felt very nausious. the symptoms of that are just starting to go.

Im wondering if these problems can be due to excess stomach acid or something? i read this on the net and wondered if you guys might agree...?

"Acid is produced by the body for carrying out a number of digestive functions. It plays a vital role in the break-down and assimilation of food and nutrients that are required for maintaining the overall health of the body. Excessive acid in the stomach is a rather unpleasant condition that is caused by various factors such as intake of certain medicines, improper eating habits, excessive smoking, consumption of alcohol, infection of the stomach or stress. This condition results in heartburn, inflammation of the stomach lining and chest pain."

[Panic Button]

I can't see why you jump from asthmatic symptoms to excesss stomach acid.

If you take a lot of your asthma inhaler it can cause your heart to beat more noticeably.

[sqad617]

Panic attacks come to mind, but I have had a bad run of wrong diagnosis, so don't put much money on it.

[chrisrob]

Excess acid and acid reflux can have the effects you describe. (Also the PPI drugs prescribed for the condition may have this side effect.)
I suffer from GORD (gastro oesophageal reflux disorder) and get these symptoms, too.
I am not saying this is your problem but do you experience other symptoms of excess acid (eg. heartburn)? Not everyone with reflux actually knows (it's called "silent reflux").
If you think it may be connected, discuss it with your doctor.
Ranitidine is available over the counter at a chemist. Try it to see if the chest pains reduce - it would be evidence it is reflux induced.
Do you need to lose some weight? Reduce your alcohol intake? Stop smoking?
Have you tried raising the bed head, not eating after 8:00pm, eating small portions, eating slowly, etc.?
There is much more advice I can give if you think reflux is the cause. Google reflux forums or ask me and I'll post some links.

[mallam]

P Button, he jumps from asthmatic symptoms to excess stomach acid because he feels queasy and 'reads things on the net'!
You are of course quite correct in saying that If you take a lot of your asthma inhaler it can cause your heart to beat more noticeably. And it does apply to relievers rather than steroids, but what is more noticeable to me is the marked increase in rapidity. I think that is normal, though it probably bothers me more than most because I had such chronic and extreme paroxysmal tachycardia (Mach 3 or 4 heart rate) that I was told the only way I'd get a new lease of life was by having a pacemaker. That was before the procedure that Tony Blair had was introduced, I guess. But I was such a pharmacological minefield that they didn't dare to juggle with my medications, so rather than exchanging the devil I did know (falling about and all) for the devil I didn�t, I did my own juggling, and got better. But obviously I still fear relievers and stick to steroid inhalers as much as possible (tho with a dose of reliever formulated in).
Well danny says his heartbeat was not as fast as normal, and that his breathing wasnt so bad in the first place. He doesn�t even say he took his salbutamol.

[mallam]

So like you, sqad, I thought of panic attacks, but as well as saying he couldnt take enough air in (which could of course be a neurotic symptom) he says he couldnt exhale normally and got tight-chested, Moreover he said sabutamol got rid of the tightness. This makes me think his doc was on the right track.

Sorry to hear you have had a bad run of wrong diagnosis. So have I, but I take your diagnosis to have been active. Mine was passive. But the last diagnostician was quite relaxed about having nearly sent me to my death, saying, �We can�t get everything right!� So keep sanguine!

That was underdiagnosis, but another diagnostician was all for getting on a white charger and plunging into my shoulders to cut out both acromioclavicular joints and try to repair the tendons they had been sawing through (not that he thought they would hold!) when my physio suggested statins could be exacerbating the symptoms and that I try coming off them. A myth, said the GP, and a myth said the cardiologist. Keep popping away at them!

Well with any luck the coronary or stroke might be instantaneous, but the operations would be anything but, to judge from the graphic accounts I had been given of the state of my entire complement of bones and ligaments revealed by the X-rays and MRIs, and the warning �I can get you out of some of this, but it�ll be SORE!�

So I took myself off the statins, and rapidly got very substantial relief. I have since learnt that the �myth� myth has been known to result in the hypercholesterolemia being cured, but the patient being dead of rhabdomyolysis!

[mallam]

BTW, sqad, my shoulder man was so impressed by how much better I could �cope with� my conditions after coming off this rubbish drug that is being pushed like the Brit Empire pushed opium that he has recommended this option to other patients. Which is very big of him, considering how gung-ho he had been about my operations! He tells me these patients have subsequently improved, ALMOST WITHOUT EXCEPTION.

I dare say his waiting list is looking more manageable too!

[sqad617]

mallam....oh! dear, what can I see other than we try. Like most aspects of life, we all make mistakes and if all the doctors who had indeed made mistakes were struck off, then ther would be nobody left.
My motto has always been "it is better to be a lucky surgeon, than a good one.

[mallam]

Back so soon, sqad! Considering my prolixity problem you distilled a punchy answer in an impressively short time. So fast in fact that I might have missed it, since I mostly seem to be writing all these screeds on here for my own amusement, and no longer bother my bum about whether anyone reacts to what I say. The volleys of repartee all seem to happen on Chatterbox, which had better stay hermetically sealed for me. The hermeneutics of these exchanges are beyond me in any case.

Well, you seem to be sanguine enough. Hope you didnt think it presumptuous of me to encourage this state.

I suppose perhaps you are not really in a position to react to my reference to the Opium Wars being waged by Pfizer?