Symptoms:
Pounding heart, fingers are tingling, and palms are sweaty.


Cause:
Hyperventilation is overbreathing. It can be induced by stress. When some people are frightened, they start breathing very fast—both rapidly and deeply, even though they do not need the extra oxygen. This causes them to exhale a lot of carbon dioxide, which in turn causes the blood to become somewhat alkaline. That results in the symptoms of a panic attack (which see).

Episodes of hyperventilation can last for hours, but generally for only 20-30 minutes. But, for the one going through it, the experience can be quite difficult.

Treatment:
• When this happens, people often go to the emergency room of the hospital. And what do they do? They may hand the sufferer a paper sack and ask him to breathe into it for a short time. This replenishes the carbon dioxide in the body, and brings him back to normal.

• But there is a danger here: The person might be having, not a hyperventilation problem, but a real heart attack (which see). In this article, we will assume that heart trouble is not the problem. But you may want to check our various sections under Cardiovascular: Heart.

• People who know they might experience hyperventilation attacks, from time to time, sometimes carry a paper sack with them.

• Exercise also helps. It not only reduces anxiety, but exercise requires more oxygen—so faster breathing is just fine.

• Do not smoke. This only adds to the problem, for nicotine is a stimulant and can aid in triggering attacks. Caffeine is another stimulant to avoid.

• Practice calm, relaxed breathing. The average you should strive for is one moderate breath every 6 seconds or 10 every minute. Ordinary people need never concern themselves with how often they breath; but, if you have this special problem, you may want to practice doing it the right way every so often.

• The more tense you are, the faster you will breath; so be calm, and think about breathing slower.

• Think about someone else beside yourself. We can focus on our fears so much, they come out of proportion.

• Avoid situations which tend to make you overly nervous. For example, for some people this occurs when they are required to stand in crowds.