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46 years
I always have difficulty breathing. What could this be?
Sep 18, 2014
2nd opinion

Dr. Zakia Dimassi Pediatrics
Difficulty breathing, or dyspnea, can result from a number of different etiologies in isolation or in a certain combination;
1- it could be a lung problem - especially if you're a chronic heavy smoker, we think of:
*chronic obstructive lung disease "COPD": progressive dyspnea over a period of years with slowly worsening exercise tolerance; daily productive cough, typically worse in the morning and after exercise.
*lung infection
*asthma (adult-onset)
2- Cardiac origin: disease in the heart muscle arteries (the coronary arteries) "coronary artery disease", or in the heart muscle (congestive heart failure, especially if becomes worse upon lying down, and/or you wake up suddenly at night feeling out of breath), can cause dyspnea. Also note that with heart failure, the lungs may become filled with fluid (pulmonary edema) and the dyspnea gets worse.
3-Esophagus (the feeding tube that connects the oral cavity to the stomach): severe acid reflux may actually induce shortness of breath and difficulty breathing; if you feel heartburn and/or have food regurgitation, and morning bitter sensation in the mouth with a sour taste, it could be acid reflux.
4- Musculoskeletal origin: inflammation of the muscles and joints of the rib cage
5- Pulmonary embolism: if there is a blood clot in your body (usually if you have extensive varicose veins in the legs), it may dislodge and travel up to the small lung blood vessels; dyspnea is one of the symptoms
6- Tumors
As you can see, the list goes on (I have not included all the possible diagnoses). You need to receive thorough medical evaluation in order to identify and treat the cause of your dyspnea.
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