What Causes Frequent Urination And Shortness Of Breath At Night?

Posted on Fri, 19 Aug 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 19 Aug 2016 Answered on

Wed, 14 Sep 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I am age 78, male, history of prostate cancer and chronic nightly urine episodes, with frequency during daylight. My primary Care doctor learned I was awakening at 4 or 5 a.m with wheezing, shortness of breath,and that I had acute anxiety/panic even as sat on the side of the bed attempting to take deep breaths. Some dyspnea continues past breakfast, and am weary enough to need a nap for 2 Hr later in the day. I weigh 197, am 5'10"ht. and retired. On 12 April he prescribed Xanax .50 mg as needed, and limits dosage to 3 pills/24 Hr. I also take sertraline 100Mg. and Buproprion XL 150 mg. on a maintenance basis for the last 30 years. A Humana pharmacy looked at the Rx and said she thought Xanax is not good for heart or oxy intake. I know of all the "warnings". I have refrained from taking ANY xanax for the last 6 days. Should I speak to my primary care doctor again? He has near 30 years in service as a family practice board certification provider.
I am at YYYY@YYYY

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (37 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, I would recommend performing further investigations to exclude other possible causes of these episodes besides anxiety:

- sleep apnea
- cardiac arrhythmia
- gastro-esophageal reflux.

For this reason I would recommend performing some tests:

- a polysomnography to exclude possible sleep apnea.
- an ambulatory 24-48 hours ECG monitoring to examine your heart rhythm trends through the night and day
- respiratory function tests to exclude possible lung disease
- a cardiac ultrasound to examine your cardiac function and structure.

Only if these tests result normal, you can consider starting Xanax.

I would not recommend taking it before performing these tests.

You should discuss with your doctor on the above issues.

Hope to have been helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar