17 year hunt for mystery ailments answer is OVER
In case anyone else is experiencing similar issues I wanted to share a bit about my situation and the solution (for me).
Around 1996 I was working for a corporation and started having ear problems, then equilibrium problems and eventually anxiety issues. These went on for about 10 years. I saw a fair amount of doctors trying to figure it out but nothing seemed to work.
Somewhere during those 10 years I started having more issues; dizziness, overall unwellness, fatigue, sleeping problems, sweating, more random anxiety issues, chest tightness, mystery pains and aches, weird numbness around my forehead, the list goes on and on.
I have been searching and describing to all kinds of doctors over the years and a theme kept popping up. Stress. So I started working on my stress levels and when I felt less stressed I was still having many of these issues. Foggy brain, even speech problems from time to time. I went through a nuclear stress test, ekgs, other acronym tests to find out that my heart is fine.
I went to urgent care last night and finally met the doctor I had been hoping to find, he is an internal medicine doctor. And he gave me the diagnosis and plan that I need. It all made perfect sense and I have been learning more about it today.
My diagnosis is that I'm a shallow breather; only using the top portion of my lungs which is not distributing oxygen efficiently.
This led to hyperventilation syndrome which mimics anxiety and mini-panic attacks at times and causes a myriad of other health issues including; metabolism issues, fogginess, speech issues, comprehension, pains, exercise intolerance, sweating and dizziness and muscle atrophy. My symptoms became worse lately because my chest muscles are super tight and this is not allowing my lungs to expand properly so the plan is to do chest stretching exercises, normal exercise and deep breathing starting with 20 minutes a day for two weeks and building up to 30 plus minutes in 30 days to build the habit so it becomes my natural way of breathing. Obviously I have to keep going beyond the 30 days but that is the time it takes to really get it going. The stress issue wasn't just about external stresses it was the biological/anatomical stress my body has been going through and that is where the disconnect was happening with me and some of the other doctors.
I wanted to share this because it's been such a long journey and my life has been missing for years. It's coming back though and I couldn't be more hopeful and relieved. I hope this helps someone somewhere.
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