Questions:
1. What is Shortness of Breath?
2. “I don’t understand d the shortness of breath, how will the person be breathing that I will know it’s shot of breath?”
3. Is all shortness of breath corona symptoms?
4. What are other diseases that can cause shortness of breath?
These are questions from our Facebook page.
Answer 1: Shortness of breath can simply be explained as ”not being able to get enough air into your lungs. Breathlessness as if “you are hungry for Air”.
Answer 2: Let’s illustrate: Imagine that you are one of three or four people asked to run a 100metres (three poles) and the first person will win a million, I am certain you will run as fast as possible to beat other competitors. At the end of the race, you are out of breath, or you are gasping for breath, or you are breathless, or you are breathing heavily, or you are trying to catch your breath. Shortness of breath gives the same feeling of Breathlessness
Another example is climbing many stairs, for instance climbing to the fifth floor of a building might make you feel that you need to catch your breath, that kind of feeling is shortness of breath. The medical name is Dyspnoea. However there are non medical causes as well as disease conditions.
Answer to Question 3: No; Coronavirus is a respiratory virus that causes Shortness of breath. It is not everyone who feels shortness of breath that has coronavirus
Answer to Question 4: Other Causes of Shortness of Breath
Non Medical Causes: As you can see from the examples in Answer 2 above Strenuous Exercise can cause shortness of breath. High altitude can also cause shortness of breath. These are not related to medical problems.
Medical Causes:
Asthma
Pneumonia
Upper Airway Obstruction and Chronic Obstructive Airway Disease (COPD)
Heart Failure
Heart Dysfunction
Accumulation of fluid around the lungs
Excess fluid around the heart (Cardiac Tamponade)
Tuberculosis
Lung Cancer
Blood clot in an artery in the lung (Pulmonary Embolism)
Anaemia or Shortage of blood or Low Haemoglobin level.
Sudden blood loss
Heart Attack
Obesity- unfortunately being fat is a risk for so many diseases so we classify it as one of the medical causes
Allergies
Anxiety disorder or Panic Attacks
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Dr Uche
