Over the last six months, my father has been having shortness of breath when over exerting himself. He is 62 years old and drives a tractor trailer for a living and finds that when he's cranking trailer wheels and really pushing himself at work, he gets shortness of breath to the point where he has to lean up against a wall to catch his breath. When not over exerting himself, he does not have this problem. There is no coughing or weezing associated with this and he seemingly has no other symptoms. He has no medical conditions and is on no medication. He was exposed to agent orange in Vietnam and back in the 1970s and 1980s he was exposed to chemicals and absestos while at work. He quit smoking in the early 1990s. His mother had breast cancer which developed into lung cancer. Anything you can think of that we should be specifically looking into? He does have a Dr. appt coming up. Hoping it's his older age finally catching up to him having such a physical job. Thanks for any input!!!!

There are so very many possible causes that it might be quite premature to start speculating. It could be his heart. It could be asthma. It could be cancer. It could be allergies.

I would expect that he'd have his heart checked (EKG) and his lung's tidal volume checked (air flow). He'll probably have a chest X-ray or CT scan. He'll have a comprehensive blood panel done checking many elements of his blood - red cell count, white cell count, inflammatory markers....

IF it is asthma, they will probably just give prescription medications and not even say to test for food sensitivities such as gluten intolerance. Celiac and problem with gluten is on the rise around the world and happening in older people which means it is not just because of our genes. But like I said - it is premature to speculate.