STUDENT HEALTH CENTRE Hyperventilation
Hyperventilation signifies a too rapid and/or too deep breath. What is breathing? Through our chest and our abdominal muscles, we breathe air into and out of our lungs. The lungs extract oxygen from the inhaled air, with the oxygen subsequently absorbed by the blood, and from there transported to the places where necessary. The body produces carbon dioxide as a by-product (CO 2 ). This carbon dioxide is extracted from the blood by the lungs and subsequently exhaled. Explanation When you run at a fast pace, you begin to breathe more quickly. This is necessary because you are using more oxygen and producing more carbon dioxide. To neutralise this oxygen shortage and carbon dioxide surplus, you begin to breathe more quickly and deeply. When you run very fast and this for an extended period, you will continue panting, even when you have stopped, because you still do not have sufficient oxygen in your body. In addition, a surplus of carbon dioxide is still present in the body. In general, you should quickly resume your normal condition and begin to normally breathe once more. Symptoms What happens then when you breathe too quickly and/or too deeply when you re calmly sitting somewhere? You of course receive a surplus of oxygen in your body. This does not in any way pose harm. The amount of carbon dioxide in the body also decreases because of the accelerated exhalation.
This too does not pose any harm, but it can lead to a number of symptoms, such as: constricted feeling, shortness of breath; lump in throat; dry mouth; tight sensation around mouth; tingling in hands and feet; cramps in hands; the feeling that hands and feet are bloated; dizziness, light sensation in the head; poor vision; the impression that everything looks different; feeling of unreality; different sounding sounds; blur before eyes; clammy feeling; feeling of fainting; weak sensation in the knees; feeling of going mad; fear of dying. Many other symptoms could be added to this list. You are unlikely to have all these symptoms, but you can probably clearly recognise a number of them. A number of these symptoms together are called the hyperventilation syndrome. Symptoms With the above explanations, it should be clear what you can do against such hyperventilation attacks namely to breathe slowly and shallowly. This is easier said than done. Even when no risk of suffocation exists whatsoever, advice to breathe slowly and shallowly offers little relief when you are panicked and feeling anxious. You can begin with an emergency measure. When you cover your mouth and nose with a plastic bag, you will collect the exhaled carbon dioxide in this bag and subsequently again breathe it in. This way, the amount of carbon dioxide will quickly, within a minute or so, again stabilise and your symptoms will quickly disappear. If you re afraid doing so will cause you to choke, you can make a small hole in the bag. The idea, after all, is to collect the carbon dioxide so you can once more breathe normally.
You can have your GP check this. He/she will ask to you start breathing deeply and quickly for three minutes, or shorter if you are showing many symptoms. It is useful to underline two things here: If you get an attack at home or at another location, you will typically not notice that you have begun sighing. Perhaps you will only breathe in just a little too deeply and just a little too quickly. Breathing just a little too quickly and deeply for 30 minutes will produce the same effect as breathing very deeply and quickly for three minutes. The situation at the doctor is equally different. You will be less panicked here. You already know a few things about hyperventilation now and your doctor is with you. So you will not become panicked. As a result, many of the symptoms that are associated with panic, such as heart palpitations, perspiration and especially the anxiety itself, will not occur or only to a lesser extent than if you were to experiences such symptoms at home. When you have breathed deeply and quickly at the doctor s for three minutes, he will subsequently ask you to hold the plastic bag in front of your nose and mouth, and to breathe into and out of it very calmly and shallowly for a minute. You will notice that the symptoms are brought on by the quick breathing, and that they quickly disappear when using the plastic bag. To make you grow more accustomed to the attacks, your doctor may ask you to provoke such attacks at home and to subsequently make them disappear. You are to carefully observe with which symptoms an attack begins. This will allow you to quickly react when you feel an attack coming up in other situations. As explained above, these are emergency solutions. Breathing gymnastics offer a better and more effective solution. You can practise those like this: Sit down on a chair and try to breathe only through your stomach. The best way to verify this is to place your hands on your stomach. You can tell this from your breath. If needs be, you can have someone else watch to check that you are not using your chest to breathe after all. After you ve managed to do this, begin to observe the following rhythm: breathe in -2-3, breathe out -5-6-7-8-9 / in 2-3, out 5-6-7-8-9 and so on. Take one long second for every count. Slowly breathing out usually takes the biggest effort. The best way to do this is to let a little bit of air escape on every count. In doing this, you will maintain triple control as it were: 1. You consciously think about your breathing process. 2. You feel your breathing, since you have placed your hands on your stomach. 3. You can hear your own breathing, since you audibly breathe out in little shocks.
It is very important to initially practise this form of breathing twice a day, 15 minutes at a time. This type of breathing gymnastics was chosen because you can also apply it in the company of others, at work for instance. It is not always easy to discern the cause behind a particular person s hyperventilation. You have no doubt seen images of high-action movies in which people are in fear. If you pay close attention, you will see that these individuals are breathing quickly and deeply. Fear appears to be an important cause for hyperventilation. Anger toward individuals in your environment, especially when you cannot or do not dare express it, is also an important factor. This may be something to think about once your hyperventilation complaints have lessened. One more practical observation: symptoms often tend to manifest themselves after physical exercise in individuals who have had hyperventilation complaints for a longer period. After physical exertion, they continue breathing too quickly and deeply for too long. So take this into consideration. An innocent phenomenon when you know what is happening. When you don t, you can become worried and this fear can provoke a hyperventilation attack in itself.
STUDENT SERVICES General practitioners Naamsestraat 80 box 5415 3000 LEUVEN, Belgium tel. + 32 16 32 44 20 fax + 32 16 32 44 14 gp@dsv.kuleuven.be www.kuleuven.be/studentservices/health This leaflet was printed on CyclusPrint, 100% recycled fiber paper. Student Services KU Leuven works for the Student Health Centre together with the Social service associations for the students of the LUCA- Campus Lemmens Institute and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. v.u.: Jan De Vriendt, Naamsestraat 80, 3000 Leuven