Fainting Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment

What Is Fainting ?

Fainting occurs when a person loses consciousness or awareness for a short time period. This occurs because the brain undergoes low amount of oxygen. The syncope is a medical term used for fainting; however, generally it is stated as “vanishing out.” Usually, fainting lasts for only a few minutes.

A short-time feeling of dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, or weakness sometimes leads towards fainting. People become conscious when they sense fading of noises, or define the sensation as “vanishing” or “disappearing” out.  A complete recovery takes only a small time period. If no particular medical state is present leading towards fainting, treatment is not required necessarily.

What Are The Causes Of Fainting ?

In several cases, the fainting cause is not clear, however, fainting can be activated by a several factors, such as:

• Fear.
• Emotional injury or trauma.
• A random blood pressure drop.
• Intense pain.
• Decreased levels of blood sugar because of diabetes or without eating
• Hyperventilation
• Thirst
• Standing for longer period of time in similar position.
• Standing up rapidly
• Physical exertion in hot temperatures
• Coughing hard.
• Seizures
• Draining while a movement of bowel
• Consuming alcohol or drugs.

What Are The Symptoms Of Fainting ?

There are symptoms of the episode of syncope, which consist of:

• The feeling of nauseated, lightheaded, weak or sweaty. There may be a feeling of vertigo or dizziness, vision may become blur or fade, and may be there is quiet hearing and tingling of the body sensations.
• With pre-faint or near-syncope condition, the symptoms which occur are same; however, the person does not lose consciousness.
• After having fainting episode, there might be a rapid return to regular mental functioning though different signs and symptoms are also present due to the underlying fainting cause. If the sufferer is leading nearly towards a heart attack, she or he may complain of pressure or chest pain.

How Is Fainting (syncope) Diagnosis ?

Usually, patient history is considered as the key to finding out its treatment. A physician may ask for the fainting reason. As several episodes of fainting don’t occur when a person is wearing a monitor of heart, it is the explanation of the patient feelings and what family members or onlookers witnessed that will provide diagnosis clues.

It is also good to go for physical examination to find out such signs and symptoms that will direct towards potential diagnosis. Physician may suggest performing heart monitoring to find out for the heart rate or rhythm disturbances. There may be a condition “orthostatic hypotension” so it is important to check or maintain blood pressure for both standing and lying position. To uncover further abnormalities, heart, neurologic, and lung system examination is required.

How Fainting Is Treatment ?

The fainting or syncope treatment depends on the diagnosis of your doctor. Treatment is not required if no particular signs and symptoms are present to faint.  Self-care is recommended in which regular BP checkup is essential.

By : Natural Health News