In medicine, hyperventilation (or overbreathing) is the state of breathing faster and/or deeper than necessary, bringing about lightheadedness and other undesirable symptoms often associated with panic attacks. Hyperventilation can also be a response to metabolic acidosis, a condition that causes acidic blood pH levels.
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In medicine, hyperventilation (or overbreathing) is the state of breathing faster and/or deeper than necessary, bringing about lightheadedness and other undesirable symptoms often associated with panic attacks. Hyperventilation can also be a response to metabolic acidosis, a condition that causes acidic blood pH levels.
Counterintuitively, such side effects are not precipitated by the sufferer's lack of oxygen or air. Rather, the hyperventilation itself reduces the carbon dioxide concentration of the blood to below its normal level, thereby raising the blood's pH value (making it more alkaline), initiating constriction of the blood vessels which supply the brain, and preventing the transport of certain electrolytes necessary for the function of the nervous system. - Online interactive oxygen delivery calculator that mimics hyperventilation
Hyperventilation can, but does not necessarily always cause symptoms such as numbness or tingling in the hands, feet and lips, lightheadedness, dizziness, headache, chest pain, slurred speech and sometimes fainting, particularly when accompanied by the Valsalva maneuver. Sometimes hyperventilation is induced for these same effects.
Causes
Stress or anxiety commonly are causes of hyperventilation; this is known as hyperventilation syndrome. Hyperventilation can also be brought about voluntarily, by taking many deep breaths. Hyperventilation can also occur as a consequence of various lung diseases, head injury, or stroke (central neurogenic hyperventilation, apneustic respirations, ataxic respiration, Cheyne-Stokes respirations or Biot's respiration). Lastly, in the case of metabolic acidosis, the body uses hyperventilation as a compensatory mechanism to decrease acidity of the blood. In the setting of Diabetic Ketoacidosis, this is known as Kussmaul breathing - characterized by long, deep breaths.
Hyperventilation can also occur when someone exercises over his/her VO2 max, when s/he can't transform oxygen in energy beyond a certain level but hyperventilate in effort to do so.
Hyperventilation is not the same as hyperpnoea . In hyperpnoea, increased ventilation is appropriate for a metabolic acidotic state, this is also known as respiratory compensation. Whereas in hyperventilation, increased ventilation is inappropriate for the metabolic state of blood plasma.
Mechanism
In normal breathing, both the depth and frequency of breaths are varied by the neural (or, nervous) system, primarily in order to maintain normal amounts of carbon dioxide but also to supply appropriate levels of oxygen to the body's tissues. This is mainly achieved by measuring the carbon dioxide content of the blood; normally, a high carbon dioxide concentration signals a low oxygen concentration, as we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide at the same time, and the body's cells use oxygen to burn fuel molecules, making carbon dioxide as a by-product.
