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Millions
of people suffer from the effects of hypocapnia, without even realising it,
when they go to work, face life challenges, and communicate with others. These effects can be dramatic, disturbing,
disruptive, even terrifying as in the case of panic attack. They are usually misinterpreted by everyone,
including the person overbreathing, friends, family, colleagues, counsellors,
and healthcare practitioners. The
effects are usually identified as “unexplained,” or they are attributed to other
“causes,” usually ones consistent with practitioner bias and professional
background.
Based
on surveys regarding ambulance calls, 60 percent of the ambulance runs in the
larger
RESPIRATION:
shortness of breath, breathlessness, feelings of suffocation
CHEST:
tightness, pressure, and pain
SKIN:
sweaty, cold, tingling, and numbness
HEART:
palpitations, irregularities, increased rate
EMOTION:
anxiety, anger, panic, apprehension, worry, outburst, crying
STRESS:
tenseness, fatigue, weakness, headache, hypertension
HEAD:
dizziness, loss of balance, fainting, black-out, confusion, disorientation
SENSES:
blurred
vision, dry mouth, sound seems distant, reduced pain threshold
SELF:
traumatic memories, low self-esteem, personality shifts
COGNITION:
attention deficit, loss of focus, inability to think, poor memory
CONSCIOUSNESS:
feelings of
“other worldliness,” sense of disconnectedness, hallucinations
PERIPHERAL CHANGES:
trembling, twitching, and shivering
MUSCLES:
tetany, spasm, weakness, fatigue, and pain
ABDOMEN:
nausea, cramping, and bloatedness.
Acute
effects of hypocapnia, depending on the person, can trigger symptoms of all
kinds, including virtually all of the symptoms identified with the “effects of
stress.” An example is increased
likelihood of bronchial constriction,
increased airway resistance, and reduced lung compliance, effects which made
lead to laboured breathing (difficulty in “getting your breath”) and contribute
substantially, both physically and psychologically (e.g., fear of not getting
your breath), to the likelihood of a breathing-struggle episode, even an asthma
attack. Other examples include muscle
constriction in (1) the gut, leading to increased
likelihood of spasm, pain, and nausea, and (2) the vascular system, leading to dramatically
reduced oxygen and glucose supply to the brain, coronary constriction in the
heart, vascular resistance, and possible vasospasm and high blood
pressure.
What
are the principles that account for these effects? Click here
to
learn more:
physiological changes. What
are some of the immediate symptoms of hypocapnia? Click here to learn more:
symptoms and deficits.
Copyrighted by
Behavioral Physiology Institute, |