 Today's Here's to Your Health segment with Dr. T. Glenn Pate is brought to you by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. When scleroderma affects the heart or the lungs, it can cause shortness of breath, decreased exercise tolerance, and dizziness. There are medications that may help slow the progression of the lung damage. Scleroderma can cause blood pressure to increase in the circulation that goes between the heart and the lungs. This is called pulmonary hypertension.