Shortness of breath, or dyspnea, can be caused by several conditions such as lung disease, heart disease and lack of conditioning. It can also be caused by psychogenic factor. Your physician can help you establish the reason for dyspnea, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, treat it effectively.

What is shortness of breath?

For most people “shortness of breath” or “having breathing difficulties” means a sensation of difficult or uncomfortable breathing, or a feeling of not getting enough air. Medically, this is referred to as dyspnea.

Does shortness of breath mean illness?

Shortness of breath can occur in both health and disease, and its significance varies accordingly. For example, when it occurs in a healthy person walking 100 feet at the top of a very high mountain, it may signify no disease. But if the same person had smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years, the same symptoms at lower altitude may be the first sign of progressive emphysema. In healthy individuals, shortness of breath may also occur at rest for no apparent physical reason.

Shortness of breath may be appropriate or inappropriate, real or perceived; and therefore, there is no standard lay person definition of shortness of breath. Physicians use the term dyspnea to describe “an abnormally uncomfortable awareness of breathing.”

What causes dyspnea?

The issue of dyspnea comes up frequently when patients are seen in their physician’s office for specific complaints, or for a periodic physical examination. It’s the physician’s task, not always an easy one, to determine whether the dyspnea is medically important, and to recommend a diagnostic plan and a course of therapy when needed.

Dyspnea can be acute, intermittent, or chronic, and can be caused by a heart or lung problem or physical deconditioning; or it can be of psychogenic origin.

Common heart diseases causing dyspnea include coronary artery disease (the major cause of heart attacks), congestive heart failure, and conditions where heart valves malfunction. Lung problems include bronchial asthma, acute and chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and interstitial lung disease (diffuse scarring and stiffening of lung tissue). Exposure to allergens may precipitate an asthma attack, or dyspnea-producing post nasal drip; but the biggest undiagnosed culprit remains smoking.

Psychogenic dyspnea, precipitated by anxiety, panic or an irregular breathing pattern of frequent sighs (“sigh dyspnea”), is now diagnosed in increasing frequency. This is usually not dangerous, but it may be uncomfortable, and particularly hard to diagnose and treat.

Lack of conditioning is also a cause of dyspnea, especially seen in the “weekend warrior athlete.” If you are short of breath playing basketball on Sunday afternoon, do you have a disease causing dyspnea, or is this lack of conditioning?

How is the diagnosis made?

Your account of the intensity, severity and frequency of dyspnea is very important.

This, combined with a physical examination and some basic testing, may rapidly establish the correct diagnosis.

Sometimes the diagnosis is elusive. Both asthma and heart disease can be “silent.” Even lack of conditioning may be difficult to diagnose without meticulous testing. The diagnosis of psychogenic dyspnea, can be made on the basis of your symptoms, after medical causes of dyspnea have been ruled out.

For exercise-related dyspnea, we use cardio-pulmonary stress testing (CPST). This important, noninvasive test combines the familiar cardiac test with lung function testing during exercise (on a treadmill or exercise bicycle). With it, we can determine your level of cardiopulmonary fitness, and whether your shortness of breath is due to a heart problem, lung problem, deconditioning, or “none of the above.”

Treatment

Treatment of dyspnea, and its effectiveness, depends on the underlying cause. Frequently, medications are used, such as those needed to optimally control asthma, congestive heart disease and anxiety. Special lifestyle instructions may be given, such as smoking cessation and allergen avoidance. Reconditioning exercises and stress management may be advised, or you may be instructed in the proper performance of diaphragmatic breathing.

Working together with your physician, in the overwhelming majority of cases shortness of breath can be controlled or completely resolved.

Most, if not all the tools necessary to establish the cause of dyspnea is available under one roof at our practice.

Nervous Breakdown is also well known as mental breakdown. There are several causes which contribute to the problem of nervous breakdown. But social isolation is regarded as one of the major causes of nervous breakdown. There may be several reasons behind social isolation. It hardly matters, as the damage caused by this factor is quite irreparable.

The following are the general signs and symptoms of a nervous breakdown. A person might experience some of them simultaneously or only one of them in an exaggerated form. The type of symptoms occurring varies from individual to individual depending upon their mental stability and past history of mental disorders.

Symptoms of Nervous Breakdown

1. Physically - A brain with excessive stress is the first indicator of a nervous breakdown. Feelings of lethargy, constant pains and aches, scratchy and inflamed skin, lowered body resistance are also signs of an imminent breakdown. Repeated sensations of vomiting and gastric problems like stomach cramps gastrointestinal ulcers, colitis and diarrhea over extended periods of time might be indicative of a nervous breakdown.

2. Hostile Behavior – This involves a person displaying excessive antisocial behavior like gambling, eve teasing, vandalism and alcoholism. In extreme cases a person might resort to overt usage of drugs which is quite a clear sign of nervous breakdowns although it is not a rule.

3. Amnesia - Constantly forgetting appointments and schedules, short term memory lapse, confusion over order of occurrence of past events describe amnesia which, left untreated may lead to frustration. Frustration may then take control over the sufferer leading to rage and outbursts.

4. Delirium - Individuals may show signs of delirium and visualize hallucinations and delusions. By hallucinations and delusions one means tasting, smelling, seeing, feeling and hearing things that do not exist in reality. They might also display narcissism which is a state of extreme self-adoration and vanity.

People on the verge of a nervous breakdown are known to have nightmares and become obsessed with terrors. Panic attacks, loss of self-esteem, sleepwalking, and morbid thought patterns are symptoms of nervous wrecks as well. Such people may also threaten to harm and destroy other people, or hurt oneself by committing suicide.

Overview
One common aspect of these symptoms is an unexpected and abrupt dissolution of the human being’s personality. This means moving away from a fixed functional routine towards a more chaotic and disruptive lifestyle. Other symptoms of a mental breakdown are irrepressible crying, low energy levels, cyclic perplexity, desolation, incapacity to think obviously, sleep interruption or insomnia, total lack of pleasure in mundane jobs and feeling of insignificance and sadness.

Go back to when we were a child and when during the summer months, the pinnacle of cookouts and family gatherings was always the cold juicy watermelon that was for desert. When you were young, eating watermelon was about taste. Now that you’re older, it’s more than just taste that should inspire you to eat lots of watermelon each year when the season arises. It’s because watermelons have great health benefits that anyone who lives a healthy lifestyle should be determined to take advantage of every year. Let’s take a closer look at some of these health benefits this fruit has to offer.

Health Benefit of Watermelons #1 Lycopene

Lycopene is an antioxidant found in most red colored fruits, with the exception of a few things such as strawberries. Scientific studies have shown that Lycopene reduces the risk of prostate cancer and heart disease in people. People who eat a diet high in lycopene are much less likely to suffer a heart attack then men who don’t.

Health Benefit of Watermelons #2 Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 is an important attribute to have in a healthy diet because it promotes chemicals in the brain that help people to cope with anxiety and panic. These are two psychological disorders that are on the rise in America today.

Health Benefit of Watermelons #3 Vitamin C

If you thought oranges were the only fruit that could provide you with Vitamin C, think again. Vitamin C is important to not only being healthy, but remaining attractive all your life. Vitamin C boosts the immune system so that you get sick less often and it also slows down aging and medical conditions such as cataract.

Health Benefit of Watermelons #4 Vitamin A

Vitamin A works much like Vitamin C, in that it helps boost immunity, but it also help your body fight off infection. It also prevents blindness.

As you can see, eating watermelon is almost tantamount to taking a multivitamin every morning, but with a much better taste. Watermelons are seasonal, which means that they are not available all year long. It means that when they are in season you should make sure and take advantage.

When you go to the store to purchase one you want to try and find one that is ripe and ready to eat. The best way to do this is to knock on the outside of the rind. If you hear a hollow sound then melon is ready to eat, but if you hear solid thud put it back. The fruit is over ripe and you won’t be getting very good flavor from it. Buy you water melon and eat it within the first few days of getting it home. Everything about it is healthy, and in addition, it won’t leave you feeling over stuffed if you eat too much.

So in a few weeks, the weather gets warmer and summer is approaching. Don’t forget about watermelons. Eat up and get the extra boost they will add to your healthy lifestyle.

Depression has the ability to affect our lives badly, there should be early warning symptoms which can show us whether we do have some form of depression disorder. We need to be able to differentiate between normal depression which passes in a few days to depression disorders which last for sometimes months or years on end. The internet provides us numbers of depression test sites that you can investigate.

While these tests can indicate if you are suffering from depression, but they can’t replace proper medical diagnosing. As these depression tests are conducted online, the level of information regarding your possibility of depression will be gleaned from the answers that you will be providing. Also your emotional and mental states during what might be a depression attack will not be evaluated. Therefore you must remember that any depression test can only help you, they can’t provide the necessary medical aid that you may need.

To make the depression test works properly you should read the question and click an answer that best indicates your feelings and emotional state for the past few days. You should have an answer for each of the questions that are asked. Any question on the test that you are unable to answer, because you are not quite sure of what to indicate, needs to be guessed at.

The questions which will be asked are aimed at your emotional state, your mental condition and your physical fitness level. This is an example of what sort of question that you might be asked is – I get very frightened or panicky feeling for no good reason at all. For all of the questions on the depression test there are four possible responses that you can choose from on the questionnaire. They are No, not at all; No, not much; Yes, sometimes; and Yes, definitely.

Once you have finished the depression test you will need to click the Calculate Score button that is located at the bottom of the test. When the score has been tallied, you will be informed whether you have the potential for depression or not. Should the results of the test is not acceptable to you, you can click the reset button to take the test again.

Even though your depression test may confirm if you are suffering from depression you should seek medical aid and advice as soon as possible. The reason is that a correct diagnoses needs to be made so that the right treatment, medications and therapy can be administered to you. Taking a depression test therefore is only the first step towards curing your depression once and for all.

What are the early symptoms of HIV infection?

Despite increased awareness about HIV, AIDS and the risks of unprotected sex, many people may don’t know what the early symptoms of HIV are. While the chances of contracting the virus are still relatively low, it’s important to be aware of possible symptoms, particularly if you’ve recently had sex without a condom.

However, part of the problem is that around a third of people who contract the virus would not display any early symptoms at all. The fact that many live with HIV for years without realizing that they are infected. Of course, the earlier the infection is diagnosed with an HIV test, the better the chances of treatment.

What does HIV do to the body?

HIV is a virus which, in its advanced form, can lead to the terminal condition AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Virus). It attacks cells in the body which fight infection – leaving you more vulnerable to disease. A person infected with HIV will not necessarily develop AIDS. By the late stages of HIV, symptoms are pronounced and can have a debilitating effect on the sufferer.

However, in its early stages, HIV is known as primary HIV infection. Symptoms usually appear a couple of weeks after exposure and may only last for a short time.

Early signs to look out for:

Early stadium of HIV can share many of the same symptoms as common conditions (such as the flu or glandular fever). The key is to work out whether you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms following recent unprotected sex:

- Sore and dry throat
- Headache and high fever
- Feeling fatigued and lacking in energy
- Pain in the joints, muscles and lower back
- Feeling nauseous and having a low appetite
- Swollen glands (particularly in the neck and armpits)
- Rash on the chest and occasionally arms
- Diarrhea

As mentioned above, although around 60% of people infected with HIV will show symptoms, many others will not.

Getting diagnosed:

Don’t get panic, If you suspect that you may have contracted HIV. Your chances of infection are low – almost zero if you have been using condoms during sex.

However, if you’re concerned, or if you show symptoms a few weeks after unprotected sex, then it’s really important for you to have test for HIV (not the same as an AIDS test). If symptoms disappear after a few days this doesn’t mean that you’re all clear. Often people will experience the initial signs and then show no other outward symptoms until years later. By that time the infection may have developed in your body and become tougher to treat.

Search for a good clinic to have a HIV test if you feel like you have those symptoms. Having the right treatment at the first stage surely would help you a lot. Avoiding to have sex without condoms is the easiest way to prevent yourself from HIV. Always seek for advices from doctors or physicians to understand more about HIV and early signs of it.