# Trouble breathing in heat and humidity



## sidepasser

I haven't really ever posted here I don't think, but there is a first time for everything!

I am having a very hard time breathing in Ga.'s heat and humidity. I am not asthmatic that I know of and quit smoking more than a year ago..no cough, no pain (like pneumonia). 

When I walk aways around the farm, the back of my throat begins to hurt, I get shorter and shorter of breath and my heart races like it just cannot pump hard enough to move the blood around, so I begin to pant, then my chest begins to hurt and get a bit tight. So I stop what I am doing and rest for ten minutes or so, and all symptoms go back to normal. No left arm pain.

Am about 15 lbs. overweight due to this blasted heat..can't exercise as I can't breathe. 

Is there something herbal I can take to help with this. I start riding lessons on Monday next week and I must be able to breathe..(have you ever had to post w/o stirrups..ugh..lol)

btw - I take NO meds, hardly even take a Tylenol that is why I am asking here first before trotting off to the doctor (who will want to do all sorts of tests)..I do have seasonal allergies, but this is not the same symptoms, no runny nose, no itchy, watery eyes. Just the lack of breath.

Suggestions? help?


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## snuffysmith

Sidepasser,
Unfortunately, I think I know what you are talking about. I have a very simular problem. I'm an x-smoker,overweight, and have trouble breathing when it's very hot & humid (as it is now in Ar.). I also have trouble when doing anything even moderately strenous.
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with pulmanary fibrosis (sp). Having no medical insurance, I have had very little treatment or help since then. I am just qualified for Medacare and will be getting into this more in the near future.
I can only advise you to go to your doctor and if you have insurance, get what treatment that is available.
My problem is that there is not much they can do for me short of a new lung.
Forty years of heavy smoking has ruined my lungs somewhat. My ability to absorb oxygen into my bloodstream is curtailed.
Good Luck, and let me know how things turn out for you, keep breathing brother!!!

Snuffy


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## naturelover

> When I walk aways around the farm, the back of my throat begins to hurt, I get shorter and shorter of breath and my heart races like it just cannot pump hard enough to move the blood around, so I begin to pant, then my chest begins to hurt and get a bit tight.


This sounds like heat and exercise induced athsma. There are lots of herbal remedies you can use for asthma, but before you go looking to a lot of herbs you might want to try what you may already have in your spice cabinet. You can make a type of caffeinated _chai _ tea for yourself that has the following ingredients in it, these are all known to help to relax and open the breathing passages: 

Strong black tea (or coffee for the caffeine in it) simmered for 10 minutes with a couple of dashes each of anise, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, chicory, fennel, nutmeg, licorice root, plus honey. The honey will sweeten the strong flavour but it is also good for asthma relief by itself.


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## sidepasser

thanks naturelover, I'll give that a go. I have never been a heavy smoker, a pack of cigs would last me a week or more, and I never smoked for years on end..sometimes I would go 5-6 years and never smoke, then out of boredom or whathaveyou..just pick it up again.

During the fall, winter, spring and up until this last 2-3 weeks, I could walk, ride, do my 5-7 mile walk 3 times a week - but lately..jeez, I can't breath at all.

I've got most of those ingredients in the spice rack, so will get the couple I don't have and see how it goes. Eucalyptus oil is great and I do soak in the tub with that at night and it seems to help me breathe at night, it's these 100 degree afternoons with 70-80% humidity..

my son said "you don't breathe the air here, you drink it"..

thanks again, hope this helps. I do have ins. and could go to the doc. but y'all know how that goes..he'll run every test on the planet, prescr. some inhaler thing that will make me a nervous wreck and I'll be out hundreds in co-pays. I can't take things like "sudafed, contact, etc." either I zonk out for hours or I am so jittery and snappy that I am miserable and others are afraid..lol..(plus they make my skin feel like something is under it" just ICK

sidepasser


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## Bink

sidepasser said:


> thanks again, hope this helps. I do have ins. and could go to the doc. but y'all know how that goes..he'll run every test on the planet,


It might be worth it to go just to rule out something going on with your heart. You won't necessarily have left arm pain. If he wants to do a bajillion other tests, just say no.


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## naturelover

snuffysmith said:


> Sidepasser,
> Unfortunately, I think I know what you are talking about. I have a very simular problem. I'm an x-smoker,overweight, and have trouble breathing when it's very hot & humid (as it is now in Ar.). I also have trouble when doing anything even moderately strenous.
> Two years ago, I was diagnosed with pulmanary fibrosis (sp). Having no medical insurance, I have had very little treatment or help since then. I am just qualified for Medacare and will be getting into this more in the near future.
> I can only advise you to go to your doctor and if you have insurance, get what treatment that is available.
> My problem is that there is not much they can do for me short of a new lung.
> Forty years of heavy smoking has ruined my lungs somewhat. My ability to absorb oxygen into my bloodstream is curtailed.
> Good Luck, and let me know how things turn out for you, keep breathing brother!!!
> 
> Snuffy


Have you ever heard of *speleotherapy* .... also sometimes known as halotherapy? It is dry rock-salt therapy for respiratory diseases. In Europe there are health clinics and sanatoriums that are actually built right inside big salt mines, where people with respiratory diseases go to stay for treatment. North America doesn't have anything like that of course but it is possible to bring a do-it-yourself version of salt therapy into your own home. There are a number of reasons for why it is helpful but I won't go into all of that here. You can do an internet search about speleotherapy to find out more information about why and how it helps your lungs to absorb more oxygen into the bloodstream, but here is one link that gives some pretty good information:

http://www.womensarticles.com/article_5119_23.html

Here is a cheap do-it-yourself home method that you could try as an experiment and see if this brings you any relief. I have seen this bring immediate relief to several people with a variety of respiratory problems. 

Get a bag of coursely crushed, natural rock salt from a livestock feed store, put 4 cups of the salt into an old, dry cast-iron frying pan or dutch oven and put it in the oven to heat. 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes should get the salt hot enough. Then take it out of the oven and set the pan of salt on a heat-proof pad and let it cool for 5 minutes just to take the edge off the intense heat (the salt will be crackling hot). Then stand (or sit) positioned with your face about 2-3 feet directly above the pan and breathe normally for about 10 minutes. If you find it is too strenuous to hold that position for that long then you can just sit down with the pan set beside you, just far enough away that the heat of the pan is not uncomfortable. You can sit with it near you like that for as long as you want.

If you decide to try this experiment and find it helps you then I'd suggest you get more rock salt that you can put cold into ordinary dishes that you can place in various places all around the home and just leave them there. The bed-side is a good place to have a dish of rock-salt, and any other place where you spend a lot of time.

One other thing .... sea-salt is effective too and especially good during hot humid weather because it is more humectant than rock-salt and is a good de-ionizer. But large quantities of sea-salt is more expensive that common rock-salt.



PS - there are some folks in England have now invented what they call a salt-pipe, it works just like an inhaler but looks more like a pipe with a receptacle that holds treated salt.


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## deb

sidepasser said:


> I am having a very hard time breathing in Ga.'s heat and humidity. I am not asthmatic that I know of and quit smoking more than a year ago..no cough, no pain (like pneumonia).
> 
> When I walk aways around the farm, the back of my throat begins to hurt, I get shorter and shorter of breath and my heart races like it just cannot pump hard enough to move the blood around, so I begin to pant, then my chest begins to hurt and get a bit tight. So I stop what I am doing and rest for ten minutes or so, and all symptoms go back to normal. No left arm pain.
> 
> Am about 15 lbs. overweight due to this blasted heat..can't exercise as I can't breathe.
> 
> Is there something herbal I can take to help with this. I start riding lessons on Monday next week and I must be able to breathe..(have you ever had to post w/o stirrups..ugh..lol)
> 
> btw - I take NO meds, hardly even take a Tylenol that is why I am asking here first before trotting off to the doctor (who will want to do all sorts of tests)..I do have seasonal allergies, but this is not the same symptoms, no runny nose, no itchy, watery eyes. Just the lack of breath.
> 
> Suggestions? help?


You could have a mild case of exercise induced asthma and the high humidity is making your normal attack threshhold lower. 

If coffee doesn't help, then I suggest that you do see your doctor about it. Why? The answer is simple...This could be a symptom of cancer or it could be a symptom of Asthma. Everyone knows Cancer is a killer, but Asthma can also kill you. If Asthma doesn't kill you, it can still substantially reduce the quality of your life. 

Natural cures are great for some things, but nothing helped control my asthma until I saw a doctor and was prescribed some of the modern Asthma drugs. Now my Asthma is under control and I know exactly what to do if have some days of high humidity.

deb
in wi


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## chris30523

I would get checked. I take a pill called singular that helps and doesn't make you jittery.I also have an inhaler for those bad times. I didn't have any problems till the last few years and have lived in the GA heat and humidity all of my life the DR. didn't call it asthma he called it "reactive airway disease"(same thing ,just different).

On the other hand I am guessing that you are about the same age as me and there are more women who die from heart attacks at our age than men. Why? because we don't have the typical symptoms. Chest pain and shortness of breath on exertion could be a bad sign.Especially if you were a smoker. We had a paitent in her mid 40's that came to see us with a pain in her back,between her shoulder blades,she had had it for a couple of days and thought it was a muscle spasm. I took her BP and it was high so we did EKG called and ambulance to get her and she went into full cardiac arrest before they got her across the street to the hospital.Not to scare you but if her husband hadn't insisted she get checked she would have been in the garden alone and probably died. Check it out!!


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## marvella

http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/grsmcam/grsmcam.cfm

i forget if you are close to the smokies, but we have coal fired generators here. when the temperature goes up, people use more a/c, causing increases in ozone and particulate matter.

this summer we have had several days already where it wasn't healthy for anyone to be outdoors.

i can just about tell how high it is by how i can breathe, as i do have asthma. interestingly, when i travel to the southwest, my breathing problems clear right up.

are you near the smokies, or does you local power company use coal? could very well be your problem.


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## fretti

naturelover said:


> ...Strong black tea (or coffee for the caffeine in it) simmered for 10 minutes with a couple of dashes each of anise, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, chicory, fennel, nutmeg, *licorice root*, plus honey...


Be very careful with licorice root. 



> Too much licorice could be dangerous. Also, do not take licorice for longer than 6 weeks. The use of licorice at high doses (over 50 g per day) and/or for longer than 6 weeks may cause low blood levels of potassium, high blood levels of sodium, water retention, increased blood pressure, heart problems, and blood problems.


http://www.drugs.com/MTM/licorice.html


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## Tricky Grama

It could be so many things...go to the doc. If it's your heart, you'll want to take care of yourself!

Patty


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