How to Recognize The Symptoms of Hyperventilation

• Hyperventilation is a situation in which you begin taking abnormally long, rapid, and deep breaths. When this happens, too much air gets into the lungs, and the balance in your lungs between oxygen and carbon dioxide gets thrown off.

In order for your body to function correctly, your lungs maintain a certain balance between the amount of oxygen you breathe in and the amount of carbon dioxide you breathe out. When that balance gets messed up, you start having strange feelings — the symptoms of hyperventilation.

In many cases, hyperventilation is caused by a sudden fright, overwhelming anxiety or panic. In these cases, hyperventilation is not serious and will probably go away when the person settles down.

However, hyperventilation can be caused by more serious medical problems, such as epilepsy. And even if an episode of hyperventilation is triggered by anxiety or fright, hyperventilation in people with heart disease could be a life-threatening situation.

Doctors in the past recommended that people who are hyperventilating should breathe into a paper bag until they calmed down and their breathing returned to normal. Now, the doctors caution against the use of a paper bag.

Apparently, in people with heart disease, breathing into a bag can prevent their hearts from getting enough oxygen. This could result in collapse or even death.

So, doctors are now recommending that people who are hyperventilating should breathe into their cupped hands, try to calm down and call a doctor. Sometimes the hyperventilation episode can be triggered by a small heart attack or a case of myocardial ischemia – a situation in which the heart doesn’t get enough blood.

If the hyperventilation was triggered by something (heart attack or ischemia) other than fright, anxiety or panic, the doctor will need to make sure the heart is not damaged or in danger.

Here are the symptoms of hyperventilation:

• Chest pain

• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

• Fluttering or irregular heart beats

• Abdominal discomfort or pain

• Dry mouth

• Difficulty swallowing

• Abdominal bloating

• Numbness or tingling in your arms, legs or skin

• Muscle spasms

• Feelings of fear or apprehension

• Giddiness

• Irritability

• Light-headedness

• Seizures

• Altered consciousness (confusion, delirium or unconsciousness)

• Fainting