Ademhalingsklachten en hyperventilatie

Frequent sighing, a tight feeling in the chest, tingling, dizziness, quickly out of breath with exertion or a feeling of "not being able to breathe deeply enough" — while your doctor finds your heart and lungs to be fine. This may be a breathing pattern disorder: a learned breathing pattern that is too fast, too high in the chest or too irregular. It often develops after a period of stress, a respiratory infection or long-standing neck and shoulder complaints, and it responds well to treatment.

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Does this sound familiar?

• Sighing, yawning or "gasping for air" for no clear reason.

• Breathing high in the chest, with the shoulders.

• Tingling in the hands, feet or around the mouth; light-headedness.

• Fatigue, a tight neck and shoulders, headache.

• Short of breath under stress, in a crowded room or when falling asleep.

• Diagnosed with "hyperventilation" before, but never treated.

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Assessment

Alexander Kudus works with the Bradcliff method, an assessment and treatment method for breathing pattern disorders. At the intake:

• you complete the Nijmegen Questionnaire, a validated questionnaire for hyperventilation symptoms;

• we observe how you breathe at rest, while talking and during exertion;

• we measure your breathing with dedicated respiration sensors (Thought Technology biofeedback) and your muscles with sEMG analysis;

• we examine the neck, shoulders, chest and diaphragm, because muscle tension there restricts breathing.

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Treatment

Treatment is exercise therapy: step by step you learn to breathe more slowly, lower and through the nose, first at rest, then during movement and in the situations that trigger your symptoms. Where needed we also treat the muscles of the neck and chest and discuss sleep and stress, because they keep the breathing pattern going. Most people notice a difference within a few weeks; we estimate the number of sessions after the intake.

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Practical

• No referral needed; reimbursed through your supplementary insurance for physiotherapy.

• Intake 60 minutes, usually within a week.

• Treatment in English and German as well as Dutch.

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Read more: Breathing pattern disorder — recognition and treatment (blog, in Dutch)