When I was a kid (I think maybe about 10 years old), my Mom took me to see a doctor, because I was having a hard time breathing. It wasn't asthma, but my chest felt tight, and it was really hard to get a deep breath. It was like I just couldn't get my lungs to expand as much as I wanted them to.
Looking back at it, I think this was around the time when I was eating ice cream and putting folgers instant coffee crystals all over them. I had no idea those could be adding to the problem, and the doctor never asked me if I was eating anything out of the ordinary. So I never thought about the connection, until this year.
I didn't realize that what I was doing was hyperventilating. I'm pretty sure my doctor never said this to me, and he definitely didn't tell me to try breathing into a paper bag.
Eventually went back to normal (probably when we ran out of the Folger's crystals), and I didn't have a problem again until I was 20, and working as a waitress, about 50 hours per week, in a busy pizza joint. A lot of restaurants have bartenders, hostesses, and people to bus the tables, but we didn't have any. We had to do everything ourselves. We would get slammed on Fridays and Saturdays, and I'd find myself feeling really anxious almost as soon as I'd wake up on a Friday morning. I was starting to get that same tight chested feeling I used to get when I was a kid. It was hard to take a deep breath, and there were times I'd find myself practically gasping for air.
I remembered seeing commercials for Primatene - they'd show how your lungs can expand, when you take it. So, I bought a box, and loved it. It wasn't a "cure" for my breathing problems, but it did seem to help somewhat. The biggest reason I liked it was because it was like an "upper" - and I could go out dancing all night!
One of my co-workers told me I should try George's aloe vera juice, because, as she said, it works wonders for a lot of things. So I bought it, and it really did seem to help (not a cure or quick fix, but it did seem to help over time). Eventually, I stopped working such a crazy schedule and drinking so much caffeine (I was drinking lots of iced tea at the time) and my breathing went back to normal.
Fast forward 15 years, to my mid-30s. I was going through a pretty bad breakup, and I was noticing that I was having a hard time breathing, again (and this was one of those times I don't remember being on caffeine, though I had smoked on and off for years, and had just quit). I knew this must be primarily anxiety related. At one point, my chest was so tight, I had to pull off the 280 freeway onto an exit to just sit in my car and try to relax, because I was worried I might pass out while I was driving.
I actually had Kaiser insurance that year, and that was the one time I can remember going to see a doctor (and I was so annoyed that I was paying $235 a month and still had to pay a $35 copay on top of that). The doctor was very nice, but she didn't tell me about the paper bag trick. Instead, she gave me an inhaler and a prescription for Prozac! I was shocked to see how quick she was to suggest it and write me a prescription (not that I minded, because I had always wanted to see what it was like).
Well, this year I was having a lot of anxiety AND I was drinking too much caffeine (but doing it anyway, since I needed to work fast).
I always feel like, there's GOT to be something easy and natural that's going to fix just about any health problem. So, for the last few days I've been trying lots of random things (really, just throwing random things at the wall to see if anything stuck). Drinking lots of fresh Kangen water, taking extra probiotics, ashwagahdha, ginger, oregano oil, and lots of vitamins. Those things may have been making me healthy in the process, but they were NOT doing anything to get rid of the hyperventilating. It was getting so bad, I'd have to go to bed early, to just try to relax, worrying I might pass out.
Then one day, the weirdest thing happened.
I saw a scene from a film clip, where people were dancing in a club, and... you know how, when you're watching something on a screen, you can visualize yourself in the same place - to the point where it can actually affect your own body? When I see people dancing in a club in a movie, it reminds me of the days when I used to go to clubs. And suddenly I could picture being in a hot, sweaty room, with less oxygen. And as I was watching the scene, and I was recalling that feeling of breathing that hot, stale air... it suddenly got easier for me to breathe.
I thought, that is so weird. Why would I get that feeling? All this time, I've been trying to get MORE oxygen into my lungs. Why would my chest suddenly relax, when I felt like I was back in a hot, stuffy room?
I suddenly remembered seeing people on TV and in movies, breathing into a paper bag, when they're having a panic attack. And the lightbulb went off. I thought, Oh my God... is that what I need to do?? I didn't think I was having a panic attack, because I knew caffeine had played a large role in my chest being tight. But I was under a lot of stress. So I thought I'd give it a shot.
I didn't have a paper bag handy, but found a sheet of plastic that I could bunch up in a way so that I could breathe in my own CO2, and sure enough.... it totally worked. My breathing slowed way down, and I felt so much better!!! It was like I could finally breathe again. I found a paper bag I could use (something about breathing into a plastic bag wigs me out). I'm going to keep it by my desk and use it any time I feel my chest getting tight again.
I googled: why does breathing into a paper bag help, and got this:
I thought, holy smokes, that's what hyperventilation is? I never even realized that. I don't remember ever being told that I was hyperventilating, and I was definitely never told about the "paper bag" trick. I could not believe how simple, easy and cheap this solution was.
This is just one of the many times in my life when I feel like I went to doctors to try to find the solution for a problem, but they never told me about the thing that worked THE BEST. Now, it's true that the doctor I saw when I was 35 did give me some options. I actually liked prozac, and the inhaler kind of helped. But those weren't the best options.
The thing that helped the MOST, was breathing my own carbon dioxide, out of a paper bag.
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