Trouble Breathing

If you have trouble breathing, you might experience chest pain and wheezing or have difficulty catching your breath. Often, breathing trouble points to an underlying medical condition, but it can also occur due to stress or anxiety.

If you regularly experience shortness of breath or feel winded even after mild activity, it’s important to meet with a qualified specialist. These symptoms could point to a potentially serious heart or respiratory issue.

At Pulmonary Consultants of San Antonio, the team treats various conditions that cause trouble breathing, including:

Asthma
Asthma causes inflammation of the lungs. As the inflammation gets worse, your lungs produce extra mucus, resulting in wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness.

Pneumonia
Pneumonia is a viral, bacterial, or fungal infection of the lungs. Anyone can experience pneumonia, but it’s especially dangerous in young children and people over the age of 65.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
COPD is a group of diseases that affect the function of your lungs. A common type of COPD is emphysema. Emphysema is caused by years of smoking and is characterized by poor lung function, a constant cough, and low oxygen levels.

Pulmonary embolism
A pulmonary embolism occurs when one (or several) arteries in your lungs are blocked. Usually, it’s the result of a blood clot in another part of your body, like your legs or pelvis.

Pulmonary hypertension
If you have pulmonary hypertension, it means the force of the blood pumping through the arteries in your lungs is consistently too high. Without diagnosis and treatment, pulmonary hypertension can lead to heart failure.

The team at Pulmonary Consultants of San Antonio treats both types of insomnia:

Acute insomnia
Acute insomnia lasts several days or weeks. Almost everyone experiences this type of insomnia at one point or another.

Chronic insomnia
Chronic insomnia lasts for a month or longer. This type of insomnia can occur due to poor sleep hygiene or as a result of an underlying medical condition.

Insomnia occurs for various reasons, including:

• Stress
• Busy work or travel schedules
• Poor sleep habits
• Eating too much before bed
• Behavioral disorders
• Prescription medication
• The natural aging process

You might also experience insomnia if you use stimulants or depressants like caffeine, alcohol, or nicotine.

To diagnose insomnia, your Pulmonary Consultants of San Antonio provider reviews your health history and asks about your symptoms, including when they first started and if they improve when you exercise or do other physical activity.

Next, they conduct a physical exam, order blood tests, and have you fill out a questionnaire about your sleep habits. Your provider might also ask you to keep a sleep diary for a couple of weeks. That way, you can monitor what you do during the day and when you wake up in the middle of the night.

If these measures aren’t enough to make a diagnosis, your provider might have you do an at-home sleep study. A sleep study monitors your heart and respiratory rate during sleep to rule out other potential issues like sleep apnea.

The team at Pulmonary Consultants at San Antonio offers various treatments for insomnia. Depending on the underlying cause and the intensity of your symptoms, they might recommend:

• Stimulus and control therapy
• Relaxation techniques (like meditation)
• Sleep restriction (avoiding daytime naps)
• Light therapy
• Prescription medication
• Over-the-counter sleep aids

You might also benefit from healthy lifestyle changes like exercising several times a week, avoiding caffeine, and eating a balanced, nutritious diet.