Air hunger

[AllyJames12]

As the title says, I've been experiencing air hunger for the past couple of weeks, but what worries me is that I feel it at rest and sometimes it's slightly worse when lying down. I have severe HA therefore worrying about heart failure!
Recent bloods showed anemia, Hb 10 and ferritin on 15. GP thinks its the low ferritin so I've started on ferrous fumerate but since taking it for 2 weeks, I haven't noticed a huge difference yet. Cause of anemia is heavy periods and GP thinks I haven't recovered from blood loss during giving birth 4 years ago.
My bp has always been low but at the mo, it seems a bit lower at 105/58.
Please talk me down and tell me this isn't heart failure. I'm 42, slim, relatively active, no major health issues. Waiting on an ECG but panicking in meantime.
Has anyone with low ferritin/low hb experienced air hunger and feeling worse (sometimes) when lying down?

I've experienced it when anxious or had low iron.

Bump. Anyone?

@ChristmasPudd1990 I don't feel anxious really..

I had that when I was very low on vitamin B12.
It was sorted by injections and now just pills.

Sympathy for you, it's a horrible feeling. I thought something was wrong with my heart. I'm fine now. Good luck x

What is air hunger? I'm sorry I've not heard of ii - is it shortness of breath?

I developed an allergy to mould four years ago out of nowhere. It makes me breathless and wheezy. It only takes a tiny bit to trigger it. As soon as my symptoms start we have to hunt behind furniture, etc to find the culprit. Could it be that? With such a wet and mild winter so far it wouldn't be unusual to find mould in your house, particularly if it is an older property.

Mine was related to anaemia too, I had a late (2nd trimester) mc then a pregnancy straight afterwards and just couldn't get enough air at the end of my pregnancy, this carried on after she was born.

I was advised to carry on with iron tablets, slow and steady, and that it takes time - much longer than you expect. Any surplus iron supplement is excreted so iron levels build back up again very very slowly.
I didn't have any further problems once it started to come back up, and it's been years now. Hope you feel better soon.

Your ferritin needs to be around 70 for healthy hair growth so 15 is very low. Most medications take 2 to 3 months before any decent effects can be felt but iron replenishment is notoriously difficult and can take up to a year. Two weeks is not long enough.

Low ferritin causes shortness of breath as well as heart palpitations amongst other things.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/iron-deficiency-anaemia/

@Beachcomber I will need to get my b12 tested. Did you also feel breathless when lying down?

I have terrible HA so I always think if the worst scenario. I am fine exercising on my Pelton or when running but I notice the breathlessness more at rest and when lying down at night. Hence my mind goes to heart failure😥

I think you need to be elderly and at the end of life last stages of heart failure to get air hunger. Yours is probably anxiety.

I’ve had this off and on in the past
couple of years. In my case it seems to be linked to perimenopause - could that be what’s going on for you?

@TribulationPeriwinkle I had thought of peri due to my age. But did you notice the breathless more when trying to fall alseep?

@AllyJames12 Yes, much more noticeable when I’m lying down, especially lying on my left side, weirdly. HRT has massively helped.

Sorry just saw this now.

Yes. I felt worse lying down. Also felt like my heart was 'jumping" trying to get oxygen into me.

Definitely get your B12 looked at. And even if the test says that you are in range you may feel better taking a good quality supplement anyway.

I was really unwell and my B12 was very low but my doctor said it wasn't too bad.

Same happened to my sister.

I found taking a good quality magnesium supplement really helped too.

I thought I was dying with heart failure. Now that I take B12 and magnesium I'm fine.
My doctor originally told me it was anxiety / perimenopause.

Needed B12 injections in the beginning though. Pills alone weren't enough.

Good luck. I hope you feel better soon x

@Beachcomber @TribulationPeriwinkle thank you, it brings me a lot of relief to hear this. I've struggled with HA for a large part of my life so it's good to hear other stories like this. I do think I've got some peri symptoms and I will get my b12 checked, particularly as I know I have low hb levels and I've heard they sometimes go hand in hand.

It's the lying down and feeling breathlessness and also the heart jumping when trying to sleep which scares me the most.

Any recommendations for b12 tablets if this is b12 deficiency? I've heard it's not so easy for the body to absorb

My B12 was fine but my vitamin D was very low, so I now take D3 supplements in the morning and magnesium glycinate at bedtime. Along with HRT, I feel so much better now. I think HRT was probably the big one, but I definitely think the magnesium helps at night.

If you had heart failure to the extent that you're experiencing breathlessness, you wouldn't be running or on a Peloton bike.

PigInADuvet is correct. Have you tried actually sitting up in bed. You can buy a little 02 sat level monitor to put on your finger for pennies., which should reassure you that you are getting enough air.

@PigInADuvet@Nannyfannybanny thank you for the reassurance. I actually have an oximeter which belonged to a relative and I've used it lately, my levels are always 99/100, but I hadn't realised that low levels correlate with heart problems, so that's good to know. My recent bloods showed vit D levels of 20, so I've been recommended a vitamin D high strength spray

My HA is really taking over, particularly around my bp. I took it last night when I was feeling breathless and it was around 97/51, which is low for me. I checked again this morning and it was back up a bit around 105/61. When people were experiencing breathlessness, did they also notice low BP?

Anyone?

Hi ally, I used to suffer with postural hypotension,had to get up slowly. You could try getting more fluids,to increase your blood pressure. I was ridiculously breathless after COVID, my sats were low 90s. I bought a spirometer,to practice breathing techniques. Course, panic attacks can make you feel breathless. The high dose but d should help you enormously. Have a look up what it actually does for you,it's amazing, the many functions it helps.

Vit D, phone changed the wording.