Unpleasant breathlessness that comes on suddenly or without expectation can be due to a serious underlying medical condition. Pneumonia can impact the very young and very old, asthma tends to affect young children, smokers are at greater risk of lung and heart disease and the elderly may develop heart failure. However, medical attention always needed by all these conditions as it can affect any age group and severe breathlessnes. There are short and long term causes of dyspnea. Sudden and unexpected breathlessness is most likely tend to be caused by one of the following health conditions. There is accumulating evidence that in many patients, dyspnea is multifactorial in causes, and that in most patients, there is no single, all-encompassing explanation for dyspnea. (Manning & Mahler, 2001)
First, a problem with your lungs or airways may disturb the patient’s breathing system. Sudden breathlessness could be an asthma attack. This shows that your airways have narrowed and you will produce more phlegm (sticky mucus), which will cause you to cough and wheeze. You will feel breathless because it will be hard to move air in and out of your airways. Patients are recommended to use a spacer device with your asthma inhaler. This will bring more medicine to your lungs, helping to relieve your breathlessness. (NHS, 2013)
Second is pneumonia, which is a lung inflammation, may also cause short of breath and a cough. An infection is usually the caused of the disease so, so you will need to take antibiotics. If you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it is likely your breathlessness is a sign this condition has suddenly got worse. (Manning & Mahler, 2001)
Besides that, hypoxia is also the etiology of dyspnea. Hypoxia stimula...
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...s. A pleural effusion is a collection of fluid next to the lung. When there are acids build up in your blood and urine, this is a complication of diabetes known as diabetic ketoacidosis. (NHS, 2013)
One of the long-term breathlessness is usually caused by obesity or being unfit. Other is asthma that is not controlled properly. Moreover, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is not temporarily damage to the lungs usually caused by prolonged of smoking. (NHS, 2013)
Anaemia, which is a low level of oxygen in the blood due to a lack of red blood cells or lack of haemoglobin heart failure, which means your heart is having problem pumping enough blood around your body, usually because the heart muscle has become too weak or stiff to work properly a problem with your heart rate or rhythm, such as atrial fibrillation. (NHS, 2013)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, better known as COPD, is a disease that affects a person’s ability to breathe normal. COPD is a combination of two major lung diseases: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Bronchitis affects the bronchioles and emphysema affects the alveoli.
The principle cause of the COPD is long-term exposure to harmful airborne chemicals and particles. The best way for COPD patients to avoid getting worse is to avoid smoking (WebMD, 2016).
An asthma attack has many effects on the body. Asthma affects the body by limiting the flow of air into the lungs. It causes airway inflammation, bronchial restriction and irregular airway obstruction. Airway inflammation is how the body reacts to something that is irritating the airways. When happening your lungs begin swelling, your breathing passageway becomes restricted and mucus is secreted. Bronchial restriction happens when the muscles in your airways tighten around the breathing tubes in your lungs. (Bronchial tubes). Mucus or fluid that is accumulated by the reaction can obstruct your airway and make it very difficult to breathe properly.
The functioning of the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is that it has a permanent decrease in the ability to force air out of the lungs. Consequently, it causes emphysema to become a more advanced disease with no cure. Emphysema is known for their permanent enlargement of the alveoli, which are accompanied by the destruction of the alveolar walls. The lungs lose their elasticity, so it loses its ability to recoil passively during expiration. People who have emphysema becomes exhausted fast because they need about fifteen to twenty percent of their body energy to breath which is more than what a healthy person needs. Smoking inhibits and destroys cilia in the conducting zone structures, which is the line of defense for the respiratory system.
It is suggested by Henderson (1998) that breathlessness in the UK today is a common and complex subjective set of symptoms. A vast range of medical and lifestyle choices cause and exacerbate breathlessness, which can be a frightening and sometimes a painful experience for the patient. A nurses interaction with a patient can help alleviate and reduce these episodes and make a substantial difference to patients both in the community and hospital setting.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a lung disease that affects breathing. This disease is one that blocks or obstructs air flow which then affects the way that one breathes. It diminishes the capability of airflow in and out of the lungs. COPD is the term used for a group of different diseases that affect the lungs. The two most common types of COPD are emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Emphysema is a destruction of the small bronchioles in the lungs and chronic bronchitis is an inflammation of the lining of the bronchial tubes. Both emphysema and chronic bronchitis are obstructive diseases that impact breathing in a negative manner. (COPD, 2014)
Congestive Heart Failure is when the heart's pumping power is weaker than normal. It does not mean the heart has stopped working. Blood moves through the heart and body at a slower rate, and pressure in the heart increases. This means the heart cannot pump enough oxygen and nutrients to meet the body's needs. The chambers of the heart respond by stretching to hold more blood to pump through the body, or by becoming more stiff and thickened.
The Autonomic Nervous System is responsible for the functions of the body that are not thought about to control. When this system dysfunctions, it can cause havoc on the human body. One example of this would be Dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is a rare but serious disease that affects the autonomic nervous system, has many symptoms, and offers few treatment options.
In normal breathing, the lungs expand and contract easily and rhythmically within the ribcage. To facilitate this movement and lubricate the moving parts, each lung is enveloped in a moist, smooth, two-layered membrane (the pleura). The outer layer of this membrane lines the ribcage, and between the layers is a virtually imperceptible space (the pleural space), which permits the layers to glide gently across each other. If either of your pleurae becomes inflamed and roughened, the gliding process is impeded and you are suffering from pleurisy. Pleurisy is actually a symptom of an underlying disease rather than a disease in itself. The pleurae may become inflamed as a complication of a lung or chest infection such as pneumonia or tuberculosis, or the inflammation may be caused by a slight pneumothorax or chest injury. The pleural inflammation sometimes creates a further complication by causing fluid to seep into the pleural space, resulting in a condition known as pleural effusion. However, pleurisy is not the only condition that can lead to pleural effusion, it may also be produced by diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, liver or kidney trouble or heart failure. Even cancer spreading from the lung, breast or ovary can cause pleural effusion. If you have pleurisy, it hurts to breathe deeply or cough, and chest pain is likely to be severe. Accompanying the pain are any other symptoms associated with the underlying disorder. The pain will disappear if a pleural effusion occurs as a consequence of pleurisy, because fluid stops the layers of the pleura from rubbing against each other; however, you may become breathless as the fluid accumulates. In most cases, the risks are those of the underlying cause. A big pleural effusion can compress the lungs and cause breathlessness. Any effusion may lead to empyema. A chest X-ray examination may be required.
The clinical manifestation one may see in patients with chronic bronchitis are chronic cough, weight loss, excessive sputum, and dyspnea. Chronic cough is from the body trying to expel the excessive mucus build up to return breathing back to normal. Dyspnea is from the thickening of the bronchial walls causing constriction, thereby altering the breathing pattern. This causes the body to use other surrounding muscles to help with breathing which can be exhausting. These patients ca...
Secondly, severe asthma can be life-threatening. Suffering from asthma can be frightening to experience and people often feel scared and anxious. The fear and scare can also lead to breathlessness and so mak...
The causes of Pulmonary Fibrosis vary from a patient’s occupation to their medical conditions. Pulmonary Fibrosis is caused by environmental factors along with genetic factors. Genetics plays a role in the contraction by determining a person’s vulnerability. A person being in an environment with asbestos fibers, silica dust, grain dust, and bird or animal droppings is at risk for this disease. Patients who also have gone through radiation could be at risk depending on how much the lung was exposed and how long it was exposed to the radiation. Medications can also factor in to the cause of the disease. Chemotherapy drugs, heart medications, and some antibiotics have been linked to Pulmonary Fibrosis. A patient’s previous medical conditions can aid in the formation of this disease such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, scleroderma, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Some other known causes are smoking and lung infection.
Here, deep in the lungs, oxygen diffuses through the alveoli walls and into the blood in the capillaries and gaseous waste products in the blood—mainly carbon dioxide—diffuse through the capillary walls and into the alveoli. But if something prevents the oxygen from reaching t...
When people hear the word asthma, the first thing that comes to mind is a nerd wheezing and taking an inhaler almost every five minutes, but that is not the case for everyone who is diagnosed with this disease. A person with asthma will often wheeze, become breathless, experience tightness in the chest, and cough at night or early in the morning. Asthma is a chronic respiratory condition and a disease marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, caused by chronic inflammation within the breathing passages. This may...
-Shortness of breath=described as tightness of the chest. Some people have trouble breathing during exercise, others experience it after inhaling smoke, while others need to ingest a particular food-regardless of the circumstance, all people with asthma have trouble breathing.