Your respiration rate -- the number of times you breathe in a minute -- is one of the vital signs your doctor checks when you visit. The “normal” rate depends on your age, but a typical adult takes between 12 and 20 breaths a minute when resting. Show You can measure your rate by counting the number of breaths you take in a minute. (If you don’t want to wait that long, you can count how many you take in 15 seconds and multiply that number by 4.) If you don’t feel well, how you’re breathing can give your doctor clues about what the problem might be. HyperventilationThis common issue happens when you breathe faster than your body needs to and you get rid of too much carbon dioxide. That throws off the balance in your blood. Hyperventilation can be caused by things like exercise, anxiety, or asthma. It can make you feel dizzy, weak, or confused. The traditional treatment is to breathe into a paper bag so you breathe back in some of the carbon dioxide. But today, doctors recommend taking deep breaths or covering your mouth and one of your nostrils to limit how much air gets in. If you have trouble calming down, ask someone to help you. DyspneaThis is when you feel “short of breath,” like your body can’t get enough air. It’s a common symptom of many heart and lung problems, and it can be a sign of something serious, like an asthma attack or heart attack. Get medical help right away if you’re short of breath very suddenly. It also can happen if you’re at high altitudes, in poor physical health, or are obese. In those cases, your doctor might recommend special breathing exercises, or they may give you oxygen. Several types of dyspnea happen only when your body is in a certain position. They include:
This is when you’re breathing more slowly than normal. It can mean your body isn’t getting enough oxygen. Bradypnea can be a sign of a condition that affects your metabolism or another problem, like sleep apnea, carbon monoxide poisoning, or a drug overdose. This is the opposite of bradypnea. It means you’re breathing faster than normal. It can be a sign of an illness that limits how much air your lungs can take in, like COPD or pneumonia. You breathe faster to keep the same amount of oxygen flowing into your body. It also can happen in people who are obese or in infants who have problems breathing. This is when you’re breathing in more air but not necessarily breathing faster. It can happen during exercise or because of a medical condition that makes it harder for your body to get oxygen, like heart failure or sepsis (a serious overreaction by your immune system). This type of breathing can sometimes make you hyperventilate. This pattern of fast, deep breaths sometimes happens in people who have a problem related to diabetes known as diabetic ketoacidosis. When you have diabetes, your body doesn’t use sugar for energy the way it should. Instead, it burns stored fat for energy. That raises the level of acid in your blood. Your body tries to get things back into balance by getting rid of more carbon dioxide, so you breathe in faster and breathe out more deeply. Because it changes your body’s chemistry, Kussmaul breathing can lead to fruity-smelling breath. SOURCES: Whited, Lacey: Abnormal Respirations. The Cleveland Clinic: “Vital signs,” “Dysnpea.” Johns Hopkins Medicine: “Vital signs,” “Hyperventilation,” “Transient Tachypnea of Newborn.” Annals of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology: “Exercise-induced hyperventilation -- a pseudoasthma syndrome.” Journal of Behavioral Medicine: “Rebreathing to cope with hyperventilation: experimental tests of the paper bag method.” International Journal of Psychophysiology: “Hyperventilation in Panic Disorder and Asthma: Empirical Evidence and Clinical Strategies.” The Mayo Clinic: “Shortness of Breath.” McGee, Steven. Evidence-Based Physical Diagnosis, fourth edition. Walker, HK. Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations, third edition. Journal of Clinical Medicine: “Platypnea–Orthodeoxia Syndrome.” Journal of Clinical Investigation: “Bradycardia during sleep apnea, characteristics and mechanism.” Kansas Health System: “Poison facts – carbon monoxide.” Respirology: “Effect of increasing respiratory rate on airway resistance and reactance in COPD patients.” EMDocs: “Approach to Tachypnea in the ED Setting.” Canadian Respiratory Journal: “Altered respiratory physiology in obesity.” Basic Research in Cardiology: “Exertional hyperpnea in patients with chronic heart failure is a reversible cause of exercise intolerance.” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine: “The Mechanism of the Exercise Hyperpnea.” A.T. Still University: “From systemic inflammatory response syndrome (sirs) to bacterial sepsis with shock.” Heart and Circulatory Physiology: “Increased vasoconstriction predisposes to hyperpnea and postural faint.” Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine: “Prevalence and treatment of breathing disorders during sleep in patients with heart failure.” American Family Physician: “Diabetic Ketoacidosis: What It Is and How to Prevent It.” Stanford Virtual Labs: “Diabetic ketoacidosis.” Canadian Medical Association Journal: “Diagnosis and treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis and the hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state.” What is abnormal breathing pattern?Breathing pattern disorders are patterns of overbreathing, where the depth and rate of breath are in excess of the body's needs. There are two main types of breathing pattern disorder: Hyperventilation/over-breathing.
What is abnormal shallow breathing?Rapid, shallow breathing is often referred to as tachypnea, which occurs when you take more breaths than usual in a given minute. This is usually defined as more than 20 breaths per minute in an adult. In children, the number of breaths per minute can be a higher resting rate than seen in adults.
What is the medical term for abnormal breathing?Bradypnea is a respiratory rate that is lower than normal for age. Tachypnea is a respiratory rate that is greater than the normal for age. Hyperpnea in increased volume with or without an increased rate of breathing.
What is a breathing pattern that is too slow and shallow?When someone breathes too slowly or too shallowly, it's called hypoventilation. It leads to low oxygen levels and high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. Hypoventilation may be caused by lung problems that obstruct the lower airways, such as emphysema, cystic fibrosis, or bronchitis.
|
