Fainting occurs when not enough blood and oxygen reach the brain. Blood and oxygen are the brain’s fuel; it needs them to thrive and perform well. If your car gets low on gas, its performance is affected negatively (sometimes to the point of ceasing to perform altogether). The same thing applies to your brain. It has to have a constant and steady flow of blood and oxygen to remain in good working order.
Having too low a blood pressure, then, is a major cause of fainting. It’s one of the symptoms of a person who faints often or who begins to faint suddenly without warning. There are two kinds of fainting to consider here.
1. Pre-syncope fainting and
2. Syncope fainting.
Persons who suffer from the first kind of fainting might tell their story this way: “I walking along the sidewalk, when all of a sudden I felt really dizzy. I swayed for a moment, everything went dark, I felt myself falling and felt my elbow strike against something hard. I hit the ground and don’t remember anything after that.” Persons who suffer from syncope fainting might tell their story this way: “I was walking along the sidewalk, suddenly their are shadows over my eyes, I felt dizzy, and when I awoke I was face down in the gutter.” In other words, pre-syncope fainters remember falling down, while syncope fainters do not.
Some fainting can occur because of the medications you’re on, usually those having to do with heart and blood pressure issues. If you were fainting often in this case, the solution may be a lower dosage of your medication. You should never alter your medication dosages, however, without your doctor’s approval. If you’re fainting often, and, what’s more, if your fainting is accompanied by chest pains or other forms of extreme discomfort, you should see your doctor right away. He or she can diagnose your symptoms and help you come up with a plan to improve your body to the point that fainting no longer occurs.
Persons suffering from hypoglycemia, anemia, and diabetes run a strong risk of fainting. Each of these ailments has to do with blood regulation in the body. Symptoms of fainting can occur for much simpler reasons, however: you can faint by just being in a room that’s too hot. Most people, in fact, have had the experience of sitting in a hot room for a long time, suddenly standing up forcefully, and immediately feeling all of the strength go out of their body. Things get dark, they’re weak, they fall back down, and bright dots dance and swirl in front of their eyes. These are all common symptoms of fainting.
There are some simple ways to avoid fainting and its symptoms. These include a good diet and regular exercise. By “good diet” we mean a diet high in natural foods, such as fruit and vegetables and beans and nuts and whole grains. These foods help to keep your arteries clear and your blood flowing smoothly along.
On the other hand, a bad diet, that is, a diet high in fat and processed foods, can be a major cause of fainting. When you eat fatty, greasy foods, fatty, greasy deposits build up in your arteries and block the blood from coming through. When the blood moves sluggishly, so does the rest of the body, and especially the brain.
Symptoms of fainting include lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, and physical weakness generally. When you stand, try to stand slowly, evenly. The same principle applies for when you get out of bed in the morning. Try to do so in a calm, measured fashion; don’t just spring to your feet as soon as the alarm clock goes off. You want to treat your body gently, in a temperate fashion, and that goes for diet and exercise as well.