This reduces the amount of blood that returns to the heart and which thereafter can be pumped to your brain. Medications, especially blood pressure drugs, often cause orthostatic hypotension. So can dehydration, thyroid disorders, and neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease. When you arrive at the hospital, clinicians will check your blood pressure and ask what medications you're taking. They may draw blood or perform an electrocardiogram to check for irregular heartbeats.
The cause of your fainting may be evident immediately. Other times, it will require more testing. Young adults with symptoms indicating vasovagal syncope often are not hospitalized.
However, patients ages 50 and older in the United States often are admitted for testing, because the serious causes of fainting become more common in older people. Despite hospitalization and testing, sometimes the cause of fainting is never determined. The bottom line is that you need medical evaluation if you faint—or if you feel repeatedly as if you are about to faint. Note carefully any symptoms you remember before or after you pass out. Ask anyone who may have seen you faint describe to you what they saw.
All of this information will help the doctor help you. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.
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Why is topical vitamin C important for skin health? The victim should lie down. Elevate the feet. Undress victim except for underwear so the body surface can give off heat. Sponge the entire body surface continuously with cool water.
Fan the victim to increase evaporation. Give as much cold water or sports drink e. An adult or teen with heat exhaustion should drink cups ml of liquids right away to replace what was lost. Then the adult or teen should drink approximately 1 cup ml every 15 minutes for the next hours. All these seemingly weird questions can suggest a life-threatening arrhythmia may run in the family.
People over age 60 are more likely to faint for heart-related reasons than those who are younger. Once the dose is adjusted, you should stop passing out. Of much greater concern is fainting caused by episodes of a slow or fast rate.
The most dangerous is a heart rhythm disturbance called ventricular tachycardia , or ventricular fibrillation VFib. In VFib, your heart fibrillates races away in a disorganized fashion. After four to five seconds, you lose consciousness, stop breathing and have no pulse.
This is called sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is the most common single cause of death in our country. If you do have any of these risk factors, tell your cardiologist promptly about these fainting spells. If you are found to be at risk of VFib, or of having a sudden cardiac arrest episode, an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator ICD can save your life.
Whenever an episode occurs, the ICD will automatically restore normal heart rhythm — within seconds.
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