What causes chronic hyperventilation?
There are many factors that can make you habitually breathe
too much. One of them is the popular idea that breathing
more than you need is good for you, although there is no
scientific basis for this notion. Eating too much, not
exercising enough and keeping too warm can also make you
breathe too much. But the one we all know to be the cause of
many diseases is chronic stress. And this is how it works:
The body sometimes deliberately produces a shortage of carbon dioxide. It does so as part of a process designed to deal with a physical threat to life known as the fight or flight response. A chain of biological changes comes about as we are faced with a life threatening situation. These are intended to enhance our chances of survival. All stresses we face, including pleasant ones, elicit this response to some extent. We are familiar with the sweaty palms, pounding heart, rapid breathing and heightened nervous activity whether before an exam, a romantic encounter or from seeing moving shadows in a dark alley. These effects are very real and are well understood by doctors.
They cause no harm provided the stress is properly discharged and it is short lived. But today we face new kinds of stresses for which we were not designed. If the stress lasts for a long time, then biochemical changes take place inside the body that makes breathing too much become a habit. Stresses faced by modern man often remain undischarged and linger on for a very long time. Examples include work related stresses, social stresses and financial worries.
stress 
hyperventilation
stress × time habitual
hyperventilation
The resulting low carbon dioxide causes many of the normal fight or flight responses intended for preservation of the individual to turn into debilitating disorders.
