What causes chronic hyperventilation?
There are many factors that can make you habitually breathe too much. One of them is the popular idea that breathing more than you need is good for you, although there is no scientific basis for this notion. Eating too much, not exercising enough and keeping too warm can also make you breathe too much. But the one we all know to be the cause of many diseases is chronic stress. And this is how it works: The body sometimes deliberately produces a shortage of carbon dioxide. It does so as part of a process designed to deal with a physical threat to life known as the fight or flight response. A chain of biological changes comes about as we are faced with a life threatening situation. These are intended to enhance our chances of survival. All stresses we face, including pleasant ones, elicit this response to some extent. We are familiar with the sweaty palms, pounding heart, rapid breathing and heightened nervous activity whether before an exam, a romantic encounter or from seeing moving sh
