Are you feeling hyperventilated or short of breath after you quit smoking? It can be the cause of nicotine withdrawal, anxiety and change in oxygen levels in your body. 

Hyperventilation happens when you exhale more than you inhale. It causes symptoms like light-headedness, chest pain and feeling like you're out of breath. It generally happens when you are experiencing breathlessness, stress or anxiety.

If you have recently quit smoking, you’re more prone to experience these symptoms and it happens because your body starts to repair the damage caused by smoking, which can temporarily make your breathing feel harder.

Here is why this happens,

Withdrawal symptom: Your body gets used to the consumption of nicotine and when you suddenly stop it your body, as a natural tendency, will crave it and hence  can trigger anxiety and stress, which are primary contributors to hyperventilation and shallow breathing. 

Increased sensitivity to breathing: When you're a smoker, your body becomes accustomed to the effects of smoking on your respiratory system. After quitting, you may become more aware of your breathing patterns and may feel more sensitive to any changes, leading to the perception of hyperventilation or discomfort.

It can also be caused if before you even started smoking the condition of mild breathlessness might exist in your body but after smoking, the lung sensitivity can trigger those symptoms more.

Don’t give up on your route to be free from nicotine if you find yourself troublesome in breathing its just a phase. Here are some tips you can incorporate in your lifestyle to keep yourself at bay from this.

Exercise: Working out will help your cardiovascular system and respiratory system It might take some time to improve your performance, but your breathing will definitely get better. You need not necessarily go to a gym, you can start swimming or go for a brisk walk.

Yoga or breathing exercises: You can start practising breathing techniques and yoga to help manage breathlessness, mindfulness and calmness.

Keep yourself hydrated as it helps to remove toxins and keep your lungs healthy. Drinking an adequate amount of water can help thin out mucus and keep the airways moist, helping ease breathing difficulties.

And lastly, the most important one, don’t alter your progress to go free from smoking to starting it again. You may get second thoughts that your health is deteriorating when you quit smoking but that is just devil talking to you, your body takes time to get back to its natural process.