Mystery shortness of breath

Post date: 2019-12-11 07:22:52

I've been having this strange shortness of breath for the past month or so, which gives me the constant urge to take a very deep breath and/or yawn.

Lately I've been feeling like I'm more or less always out of breath, like I'm only getting about 75% of the oxygen I need. It gives me the constant urge to take as deep a breath as possible and/or yawn. This only make the feeling go away about half the time, and it comes back within a minute or less.

The feeling comes and goes, usually minimal when I'm absorbed in something, like work or socializing, and worst when I have nothing else to occupy my attention, like walking. The more I pay attention to it the worse it gets, which makes me think it's mostly or all mental. It's annoying, and if it got any worse I could see it being panic attack material.

This has been an unusually stressful year, but I'm not feeling particularly stressed lately. I'm in as good shape as I've been in a long time, and it doesn't affect my workouts. Chest stretching doesn't help. Shallow and/or deep breathing does, but only temporarily. I don't have any allergies that I know of. My blood pressure is a little high, but none of the medications I'm taking list shortness of breath as a side effect. (I'm a 47-year-old guy.)

Limited googling (I know) gives me the impression that a) it's not uncommon and b) doctors in general don't have any idea. I'm going to see my GP next week, but I'm wondering if anyone has had something similar and what if anything worked—even just waiting it out.

Please click Here to read the full story.