Quiz - Is Your Breathing Affecting Your Health?
The Breath
Our bodies breathe automatically, taking over 24,000 breaths each and every day of our lives but this doesn’t mean we breathe in a way that supports health! Many people with dysfunctional breathing have developed habits that lead to ineffective breathing.
Hyperventilation syndrome, reportedly affects between 4 – 10% of the general population. Some medical authorities suggest that this estimate is low and under reported because it is greatly misunderstood and not assessed regularly by medical professionals.
Research is learning that many health conditions are affected by dysfunctional breathing including anxiety, chronic pain, autoimmune conditions, IBD and IBS, and ESPECIALLY cardiovascular disease and hypertension, with some researchers claiming that dysfunctional breathing is at the heart of heart attacks!
The QUIZ
This is a simple questionnaire that can be used to determine your likelihood of hyperventilation syndrome. Simply check the appropriate box that best represents the frequency with which you experience the symptoms listed.
Any score greater than 23 is an indication you may have hyperventilation syndrome, and suggests you could greatly benefit from Breath Retraining. Please be evaluated by a qualified medical professional if you believe you have hyperventilation syndrome or dysfunctional breathing
Some signs and symptoms of improper breathing, which includes chronic hyperventilation, are as follows:
- Elevated or erratic heart rate
- Heart palpitations
- Elevated or erratic blood pressure
- Dizziness, vertigo, light-headedness or spaced out feeling
- Shortness of breath (without exertion)
- Difficulty catching your breath
- Frequent sighing or wheezing
- Catching yourself not breathing
- Chronic cough
- Chronic mouth breathing, snoring, sleep apnea (waking to breathe)
- Sensation of lump in throat or chest
- Tightness in the chest
- Sensation of a band across the chest
- Stitching or stabbing sensation in the ribs or pain in the sides
- Tenderness of the chest wall
- Chronic muscles tension and/or muscle spasms or tremors
- Insomnia, poor sleep, waking tired and exhausted
- Snoring
- Waking from sleep not breathing
- Chronic sinusitis, recurrent colds, allergies
- Poor memory and difficulty concentrating
- Headaches and migraines
- Numbness and tingling in face or lips
- TMJ or tightness in the jaw, lips or tongue
- Cold hands and feet/Raynaud’s syndrome
- Fatigue
- Drowsiness while driving, in warm room, in a meeting
- Sexual dysfunction
- Constipation
- Ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome
At Rosebud Natural Medicine we work with our patients to help them train their breath, through biofeedback, to reverse hyperventilation syndrome and improve their overall health! Come in for your free 15 minute consultation to see if biofeedback breath training can help you.