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I Get Short of Breath Easily — Why?

Northwest Houston Heart Center Blog I Get Short of Breath Easily — Why?
I Get Short of Breath Easily — Why?

Shortness of breath, medically called dyspnea, is a relatively common symptom that can be present in many types of health conditions, ranging from anxiety to asthma to lung problems to cardiac disease. That’s why it’s important to get a medical workup if your breathlessness doesn’t go away.

At Northwest Houston Heart Center, Dr. Adnan Aslam and Dr. Roy Norman diagnose and treat shortness of breath that’s cardiac-related, and can rule out symptoms caused by other, unrelated conditions. If you’re getting short of breath easily, here are some of the reasons why that may be.

What causes shortness of breath?

Having trouble breathing stems from a variety of causes, including physical activity, being at a high altitude, or having a panic attack, which may feel like a heart attack.

Sometimes, shortness of breath can occur even while you’re at rest, such as when you’re sitting at your desk at work. Prolonged sitting can lead to shortness of breath because of bad posture.

However, shortness of breath most frequently signals either a heart or lung condition. If it’s a lung problem, you’ll likely also have symptoms such as coughing or wheezing.

Heart problems that cause shortness of breath include:

Heart-related shortness of breath may also produce symptoms such as chest pain or pressure, dizziness, palpitations, and/or nausea.

Reasons why you feel breathless

Heart conditions may cause breathlessness for different reasons. For example, if your heart doesn’t pump enough oxygen-containing blood to the body, your body responds by making you breathe faster to try to get more oxygen into your body, making you feel short of breath.   

Or, in the case of congestive heart failure, you may develop a buildup of fluid in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

Some heart conditions leave the heart too weak or stiff to pump blood properly, so the body’s tissues, including the lungs, don’t get the oxygen they need.

For most people who experience shortness of breath related to their heart condition, there are two main forms:  

1. Acute

This type of breathlessness comes on suddenly. If you have heart failure, this can happen if too much fluid builds up in your lungs. If you have an arrhythmia, this can cause sudden breathlessness as well.  

2. Chronic

This type of breathlessness occurs every day. For example, if you have advanced heart failure, you may feel breathless most of the time, even if your condition is being managed as well as it can be.

Treating cardiac-related shortness of breath

Our Northwest Houston Heart Center doctors treat your shortness of breath by targeting your underlying cardiac problem, and we always start with the most conservative therapy appropriate for your condition.

We also address issues like hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, or diabetes, all of which can accelerate cardiovascular disease. Medication and/or lifestyle changes are usually first-line treatments.

Patients with heart disease can also improve their symptoms with lifestyle changes such as decreasing stress, eating a healthy diet, limiting salt, exercising more routinely, and losing weight if needed.

When you need more aggressive treatment, the doctor may prescribe one of many possible devices or recommend a surgical procedure.

If you’re getting short of breath easily, you need to seek medical attention to get an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

To get started at Northwest Houston Heart Center, give us a call at one of our locations — The Woodlands, Magnolia, Cypress, or Tomball, Texas — text us at 832-402-9518, or book online with us today.

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