FAINTING – INTRODUCTION
Genteel ladies of the Victorian age were prone to attacks of “the vapors”.
Smelling salts, whose pungent odor revived them, was a most necessary constituent of any first aid kit of the time.
Syncope, a faint, a vasovagal attack, are all labels for this common condition.
A faint occurs when the blood pressure suddenly drops and the output of the heart fails, so that not enough blood is pumped to the brain.
Lack of blood and therefore, oxygen reaching the brain leads to the loss of consciousness. The person falls to the ground and then rapidly recovers.
Although the mechanism of a faint is always the same, there are many different causes of why the blood pressure should suddenly fall.
Most of these causes are simple and do not indicate underlying disease.
In a few cases there is, however, some disorder or disease process present.
The heart is a pump, pumping blood around the body through the arteries. Blood flowing in the arteries has a continuous head of pressure behind it to move it onward.
*353/71/1*
Related Posts:
Tags: General Health
No comments 
Category: