Dyspnea

Dyspnea, also called air hunger or shortness of breath, is a symptom of ME/CFS.

Prevalence

 * 1995, Katrina Berne, PhD, reported a prevalence of 30-70% for shortness of breath.
 * 2001, In a Belgian study, 79.2% of patients meeting the Fukuda criteria and 83.5% of patients meeting the Holmes criteria, in a cohort of 2073 CFS patients, reported exertional dyspnea.

Symptom recognition

 * Exertional dyspnea is noted as a symptom of autonomic nervous system manifestations in the Canadian Consensus Criteria and is included in the criteria for diagnosis of CFS.


 * Air hunger or labored breathing are also included in the criteria for diagnosis in the International Consensus Criteria, under Respiratory part of Energy production/transportation impairments.


 * The Institute of Medicine criteria used by the CDC refers to shortness of breath as a sign of orthostatic intolerance and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome in the full report, but not in the diagnostic criteria.


 * It is not described in any other case definitions for ME/CFS.

Shortness of breath is a potential symptom of Long COVID in the World Health Organization's definition.

Notable studies

 * 2012, Dyspnea in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): Comparison of Two Prospective Cross-Sectional Studies. - (Full Text)

Potential treatments

 * Breathing techniques
 * Buteyko method
 * Cordyceps
 * Antacids
 * Betaine HCL