Feeling of lacking air.?

For those who live in countries with harsh winters, do you find yourself being worse in winter? Fall is coming soon and when I can’t open the windows, I feel like I am lacking air and my general malaise increases. It’s a weird feeling, I can breathe fine (except when out of breath) but I sort of feel trapped.

Winters have always been worse for me. A lot worse, and I thought it was because of the snow shoveling and putting on boots and big coats, but last winter I had people shoveling and a carport so no shoveling and I wasn’t better.

Could it be not because of not having as much fresh air coming in the house ? I’ve been like that in two different houses, so I don’t think the house is the problem.

Can you relate to this ?

 

Air hunger is a symptom I experience with ME. I don’t associate it with winter tho. Some days I’m having a good reasonably PEM-free day, just sitting down minding my own business and boom! Suddenly I’m gasping for air. It is not a panic attack. I’m breathing normally. Nice, slow deep breaths. I’m just not feeling oxygenated. I’ve only had one mild and brief attack since getting a vitals wearable which can measure blood oxygen levels. If I get another attack (I hope I don’t) hopefully I’ll collect some data on it.
Air hunger is very unpleasant.

 

Do you have acid reflux? I don't get heartburn the way most people do. I have problems breathing in when mine is really bad.

 

I had a few years of not being able to breathe outside if the temperature was below X degrees - no idea what X is, just close to or below zero. I think wind speed and humidity made a difference.

I'm not just talking about being short of breath, I'm talking about everything going grey, about to pass out unable to breathe, within a few minutes of going outside.

It is very rare I will go out during 'winter' now if the temperature is low (UK low, not Canada low lol).

I have also had air hunger before, the 2 are not related for me.

 

I can definitely relate to this.

My GP in the UK sent me for lung tests also to a surgeon to fix my nose but both told me everything was normal.

I am much better in a high oxygen areas, ie open air. I sleep my windows open at night in summers and feel much better and I hate and do much worse in winters. Though I'm cold in winters, any kind of artificial heating makes me very very sick except our ancient cast iron wood burning stove.

 

Yes, it really is !

.
I do have acid reflux but I don’t think it’s related to it. I’d be really surprised if it was.

No, it’s not something I feel in my lungs. It’s rather a feeling of doom, like I was trapped in a very small area, with very little ventilation. A sensation that my brain is dry.

.
Humidity doesn’t really bother me, except when I have body pain (which I haven’t had since taking LDN for a few montbs).

That ‘s how I feel too. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that ME brains are deprived of oxygen, so when in a well ventilated area, more oxygen is absorbed ?

 

My daughter has this. Not being able to breathe properly.

She says it feel as though the air can't get very far into her lungs - it " doesn't go all the way down" . When worst it feels as though it only gets to just above sternum.

Had spirometry test which was not completely normal but nurse put it down to her not trying hard enough. She found it completely humiliating and will not do another.

GP can't interpret it as not normal but not bad enough to do anything about it. Lack of curiosity is the difficult thing to understand.

@JaimeS had a thread on PR on supplements she took. For air hunger the emergency remedy was liquid vitex Agnus castus in water - it acts similar to a vasodilator, via stimulating FSH.
I' ve shared this with other parents and it does seem to make a difference - tagging @Tilly for A.

It also helps with PMS / estrogen issues.

 

i've had something similar for last 2-3 winters.

my suspicions include:
- our bodies are colder and less able to function at a cellular level
- higher risk of winter-time community-acquired minor infections, that make us weaker
- colder, wetter air
- because lowered body temp, the air we inhale isn't fully heated & vaporised, and some of the moisture accumulates in our lungs, making it harder to breathe, and higher risk of infection
- our lungs muscles, and the cilia that help control fluid currents in lung, are too weak to perform well
- combination of all the above

my current strategy is - heating the house overnight ($$$) - electric blankets beneath me & above - and herbs to help me remove the lung slime so that i can breathe.


[edited to add #1] a family friend suggested lying on a slanted board, with my head at the lowest end, for 15 minutes twice a day, to help drain the lung sludge. similar to other health conditions where lungs aren't draining properly. but my body doesn't cope well with the OI wobblyness, & the gymnastics to get into, and out of, that posture.

[edited to add #2] body temperature isn't just for comfort - our gazillion cells are optimised to do their trintillion complicated activities within a narrow range of temperature - so if our body is too cold, the cells cannot function well.

 

My son suffers a lot with this just as he goes in PEM state. I have been looking into Mast Cell as this is one of the symptoms. As he also has a rash at the tip of his arms when he takes antihistamine this disappears and since on this his that inability to open his lungs enough to get the air in has improved a slight bit. He also complains of not being able to get the air past his throat.

I need to do some more reading on this as I also think this is mentioned in over training and one of the Open Foundation speakers I can't quite recall but has something to do with chronic sudden condition. Have put this on my list and will be back when I have read up on it a bit more or found the Youtube

 

The red-blood cell deformity and low plasticity may be relevant here. If RBCs have trouble wiggling through capillaries, gas transfer must be slightly lower than it should. I imagine the signals that cause air hunger are at those endpoints of the capillaries where the gas exchange occurs, a reasonable cause if they get there in lower amounts than usual.

Anyone knows if air hunger is caused by low oxygen or high CO2? I couldn't find an answer to that. I'd guess the latter, as there normally is oxygen oversupply within the body and in our case we tend to use little of it anyway. Maybe, because of problems working their way through lung capillaries, red-blood cells have trouble removing CO2. Excess CO2 causes headaches, weakness, dizziness, trouble concentrating, etc.

 

** UPDATE **

previous winters, i had to sleep sitting upright on pillows, to avoid choking on the lung fluids.
i tried multiple asthma drugs that were 100% useless.

last year, a friend recommended a specific herbal 'cough lung tonic', which kept me safe through the (southern hemisphere) winter.

this year, the herbalists ran out of ingredients (maybe because Covid-19 supply chain issues), winter arrived, my lung fluids returned, my muscles became very weak, and my brain was struggling with basic tasks.

in the last few weeks, the 'cough lung tonic' is available again, and already my symptoms are reduced and i'm a bit stronger.