Breathing Difficulties - First Aid

See all Pictures & Images

Causes

Difficulty breathing has many potential causes. Some of the most common are:

• Sudden illness or infections like pneumonia, acute bronchitis, whooping cough, croup, or epiglottitis (inflammation of the epiglottis -- the flap that closes the windpipe when you swallow)
• Ongoing medical problems like heart disease, asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or heart failure (which causes shortness of breath because fluid backs up into the lungs)
• Heart attack
• Injury to the neck, chest wall, or lungs
• Collapsed lung, which can happen if you have emphysema or asthma, but may also happen spontaneously in young, healthy people
• High altitudes, which can be a problem even in young people
• Cigarette smoking or breathing secondhand smoke
• Pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot in the lung, which can cause very abrupt and severe difficulty breathing
• Life-threatening allergic reaction