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Light Headedness, Breathlessness When Running. Normal Blood Pressure. Taking Lescol For High Cholesterol
I m a 50-year-old man. I ride an exercise bike 4 days/week. I ride hard for an hour and feel great. But for some reason I can no longer run or even jog. When I run I get lightheaded and short of breath. I sometimes feel lightheaded when I run up a flight of stairs, as when getting out of the subway. This is a fairly new phenomenon - I ran marathons in 2003, 05 and 09 (not fast but without incident). I m told my blood pressure is normal. Other things to note: As a child I had asthma . I have high cholesterol and take Lescol for that. This doesn t feel like chest pains. Any thoughts?
Fri, 31 May 2013
Dear patient,
Thanks for your health concerns. Although there might be more benign causes such as bronchospasm (given your history of asthma) for the shortness of breath, when I have patients in your situation who have good exertional capacity and they notice a significant sudden limitation, i worry about obstruction in the arteries of the heart, which can truly present with shortness of breath instead of chest pain with exertion. I would advocate for you to see your physician, who will possibly order an exercise stress test for you.
Best wishes,
Dr Brenes-Salazar MD
Mayo Clinic MN
Cardiology
Thanks for your health concerns. Although there might be more benign causes such as bronchospasm (given your history of asthma) for the shortness of breath, when I have patients in your situation who have good exertional capacity and they notice a significant sudden limitation, i worry about obstruction in the arteries of the heart, which can truly present with shortness of breath instead of chest pain with exertion. I would advocate for you to see your physician, who will possibly order an exercise stress test for you.
Best wishes,
Dr Brenes-Salazar MD
Mayo Clinic MN
Cardiology
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