Shortness of breath

Symptoms Physical
#1

Hey

Anyone else feeling shortness of breath post-fin? I’m not sure if it’s caused by PFS, but I get it pretty bad. It’s the feeling of having to gasp for breath and especially in the evening I can’t get a satisfying amount of air into my lungs. So shortness of breath. It’s really annoying… the tests also show that I have incapacitated lung volume, it’s only about 350 ml/min when I should be able to generate about 500-600 ml/min.

Sorry if the terms I used are all fucked up, I’m not familiar with lung-related terms :frowning:.

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#2

From what a lot of people say it’s from estrogen. I had it early days but has gone now unless I throw my estrogen levels out. Try son myomin and see if gets better.

#3

I have the same problem!
I don’t know if it’s related to anxiety or a type of asthma.

If I have some news I’ll keep you updated!

#4

Has anyone had this and it improved? My breathing is very shallow and there’s a “hollow” feeling inside of my lungs and body. Like even when I take deep breaths, it doesn’t go away. When I try to exercise, I have to suck wind but it’s not the same. Like a dead, shortness of breath.

#5

I have the same and i found some ways for relieve. Fasting being the best way, just do not eat for a long time, your breathing will get better over time. In the upcoming Italian study from melcangi he found that all pfs victims that were in the study have altered microbiomes. I did a test 5 years back and my results were also severe dysbiosis. If food does not digest well it gets in the way of breathing properly I believe.
Fresh air also helps tremendously, my breathing gets so much better when sitting outside or when i leave a window open. the more fresh air the better.
What also helps in my case is sitting in the dark. Somehow when i focus too much especially on moving images such as television, but also light emitting devices, the front of my head stiffens but also the rest of my body and therefore also interfering with my breathing.
Lastly, posture is also important for me. What helps me the most is rotating my pelvis and pointing my belly forward.

#6

Pulmonary Hypertension is a pretty rare disease and slowly developing chronic condition.
This is most likely probably not the case, but I havent seen any mention of it here, so i’ll at least throw it out there.
This is much different then just having high blood pressure.
Shortness of breath not related to asthma is one major debilitating symptom, it can also include lack of tolerance to exercise.
Again though a person probably wouldnt last long with this though, so I wouldnt think this would be the case here.
Funny thing they actually use Viagra to treat it, this was first being developed for this specific condition, before it was marketed for ED.

#7

I noticed the faint feeling of suffocation often during the first few months after developing PAS and it did improve much during the first 6-months post-drug. Have still noticed it off and on throughout the years. It never entirely went away for good. It often accompanies an “overheated for no reason” sensation that also appeared for the first time after crashing.

#8

Altered brain neurosteroid balance causes serotonergic dysfunction that causes pseudo-dyspnea, Also acid reflux can cause this. You might get panic attacks if this worsens.

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#9

Is there anything we can do about this?

#10

Do aerobic exercise and emdr training but, it took two years of time for me to recover without using ssri. If you use them, you can recover in weeks but your pfs quadruples…
So be patient try not to think about it, when it happens.
I know it is a bitch but, you should not give in and do over breathing.
If you over breath, this will make your blood acidic then, this disturbs intra and extra cellular calcium balance and you get spasms in your muscles which might turn in to chocking feeling to weird aches all around your body.
In the end you might get a panic disorder.

So knowing this just be patient and do aerobic exercise.

And absolutely do not over-breath…

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#12

DHT, is it possible that pseudo-dyspnea can lead to chronic palpatations from hyperventilation/hypo, or is it something different?

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#13

Thanks for the useful first hand information as well.

#14

Yes that’s true, check what happens when your blood CO2 gets too low, that’s pretty scary but not harmful.

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#15

Something to also consider when experiencing shortness of breath (chest tightness) is immune system overactivation, which releases extra histamine and lead to Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). This happened to me when I experimented with various probiotics and herbal antibiotics and this is thought to be a result of jarisch herxheimer reaction.

#16

Question. Do you always have this shortness of breath? Or only when your brain is processing something like sounds, watching tv or reading?

I am curious since I am short of breath especially when my mind is fixated, the longer I relax the deeper my breath is.

#17

@doomed80 That’s not fake shortness of breath and requires medical intervention you can check if it is real or not with pulse oxymeter if your spO2 is more than 95 then it is fake @Pff i Developed it after i got pfs thats why I Believe that finasteride changed my brain chemistry and symptoms caused by Pfs mostly rooted in brain circuitry.

#18

@DHT I’m sure there are several causes for shortness of breath including severe ones. Seeking medical care on immediate basis to rule out any serious issues is the best advice.

That said, I had scary episodes of troubled breathing/chest tightness that I found out later were possibly caused by herx reactions. It was so scary that every time I laid down on my back I’d get out of breath. Stopping the offending probiotic(s)/antibacterial herb(s) did help at the time. I also witnessed similar issue yet to a milder scale when introducing an “organic honey”, so I must have been allergic to it.

#19

Yes brother it is best to carry pulse oximeter when you have psychological breath issue with asthma or some serious allergy you need to be extremely careful. It is alway best to check everything physical first. If docs confirm it’s not lung heart or stomach related then usually anti anxiety meds help but not always even with diagnosed psychiatric breathing issue always best to carry spo2 meter.

#20

Thanks for the help bro @DHT . About 8 months ago, I couldn’t tolerate so many foods including garlic, onion, dairy, honey, & even nuts due to severe allergic reactions (e.g shortness of breath). I think gut microbiome was in absolute state of dysbiosis. I’ve been improving steadily and interestingly PFS symptoms were also following suit. I’m very close to completing my protocol to re-balancing the gut. Let’s see how this goes.

#21

So your kind of playing the same game here that has been done with androgens over the years, but with retinoic acid instead.
Such as androgen disruption leads to dysbiosis,
or is it dysbiosis leads to retinoic acid disruption?
Cause leads to consequence.
The question im looking at, is it the microbiome itself that could lead to vitamin a or retinoic acid status?

I know this is something a few of us have noticed over the years including myself.
A key thought from this study,

Whether dysbiosis is a cause or consequence of chronic respiratory conditions, or whether retinoic acid (RA) - the bioactive metabolite of Vitamin A - is essential for lung microbiome homeostasis,
remains unknown.

Vitamin A Deficiency and the Lung Microbiome

Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient responsible for lung morphogenesis, respiratory function,
and innate immunity. While vitamin A deficiency (VAD) alters gene expression and tissue
morphology, the microbiome has been shown to play an intimate role in the metabolic regulation,
pathogen inhibition, and inflammatory responses in the lung. Once believed to be sterile, recent
studies now show microbes inhabiting healthy lungs that are dysregulated in patients with
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and tuberculosis (TB). Whether
dysbiosis is a cause or consequence of chronic respiratory conditions, or whether retinoic acid
(RA) - the bioactive metabolite of Vitamin A - is essential for lung microbiome homeostasis,
remains unknown. We hypothesize dysregulation of host-microbe interactions in VAD lungs that
are associated with chronic respiratory conditions. To characterize this association, we obtained
a preliminary metatranscriptomic signature profile and H&E stains of paraffin-embedded tissue
samples to compare the morphology and changes in gene expression in the lungs of these two
groups. Histology results provide evidence of an inflammatory-like pathology in VAD lungs that
are absent in VAS lungs. Our computational results show an increase of COPD-associated
microbial expression and dysregulation of the host immune pathways, indicating a possible
correlation between lung dysbiosis and the alteration of granulocyte and macrophage function in
the absence of vitamin A. By using our combined molecular-metatranscriptomics approach to
compare mammalian and microbial gene expression profiles, we aim to identify novel host microbe interactions that will prove invaluable for treating chronic respiratory diseases.