syncope information--mostly for my future reference and with no kind of order or logic
I have done what no doctor has dared to do! I have... diagnosed my syncope!
Look, I even remember the fancy word for my 'condition'. Syncope! Fainting! Don't be too shocked, because I've got more fancy words coming up. :D I will define them in parathesis afterwards because if I look back on this in a few weeks, I will have forgotten what the big words mean. Well, okay, at least hypotension.
I... have syncope... um, faint... probably for a mix of three medical reasons, with help from a certain kind of situation. Actually, I'm surprised it wasn't more obvious. ^-^; First of all, I have an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). It's not a problem, it runs in my family and doesn't require medication at all. Second, I'm probably hypoglycemic (low blood sugar). Thirdly, I just realized I verge on having hypotension (low blood pressure). At the doctor's office, I average something like 90/60, which is the lowest you can have and still be within the normal range.
I forget why I started looking at this--I think it had to do with my medication and a commercial on television saying that people with hypotension are chronically sleepy, which I am and so I just wondered--but when I was looking up hypotension, I saw that it can cause syncope, which made me look into that... I've always been incredibly curious about it, but I never got around to researching.
One thing I did not know was that about 3% of the population experience syncope at some point in their lives. Strictly speaking, syncope is caused by an abrupt decrease of blood flow to the brain. Syncope is grouped into at least two categories, cardiac and non-cardiac or cardiac and vasovagal (relating to blood vessels). Otherwise, four categories: neurologic, metabolic, vasovagal (having to do with blood vessels) and cardiac. The percentage breakdown of these causes is: 55% vasovagal, 10% cardiac, 10% neurologic, 5% metabolic or drug-induced, 5% "other," and 10% undiagnosed causes. Only cardiac syncope commonly leads to sudden death. In other cases, increased morbidity occurs with falls or accidents resulting from loss of consciousness.
Arrhythmia and hypotension would be associated with cardiac syncope, hypoglycemia with metabolic syncope. Noncardiac causes tend to be more common in young adults, while cardiac syncope becomes increasingly more frequent with advancing age. Metabolic syncope is also prolonged, both onset and resolution. Generally occurs during exertion, but occasionally when patient is supine.
Syncope is relatively uncommon in pediatric populations. One small retrospective study by Pratt and Fleisher (1989) reports a prevalence of less than 0.1% in children. Migraines are the second most common cause of syncope in young adults.
Vasovagal syncope (also known as cardioneurogenic syncope) is the most common cause of syncope, probably accounting for more than 80% of all syncopal episodes. Vasovagal syncope is a result from exposure outside stimuli that sends an electric signal to the vasimotor center in the brainstem. The vasimotor center sends a signal to the blood vessels in the legs, causing them to dilate. Blood then pools in the legs, drops the heart rate, and causes syncope. Usually the drop in the heart rate is not the cause of the syncope, but the blood pooling in the legs.
Stimuli for vasovagal syncope can be any one of hundreds of things. Pain is a common cause, along with the sight of blood, recieving upsetting news or standing still for a long time. Anyone can have a vasovagal episode, but certain people are particularly prone to such episodes and have mild triggers. Such individuals will often have a history of syncope relating back to their childhood and frequently will describe several different of triggering events. While, as noted, there are scores of possible triggering events for vasovagal syncope, some are quite characteristic and almost always point to vasovagal syncope. Syncope occurring after urinating, defecating, coughing or swallowing, or syncope associated with pain, fright, the sight of blood, or other noxious stimuli, is almost always vasovagal.
In these and other ways, vasovagal syncope tends to be highly situational. It is more likely to occur after a viral illness, after exercise, after a warm shower, or early in the morning - any time that relative dehydration is present, and dilation of the blood vessels in the legs would be more likely to produce a significant drop in blood pressure. Furthermore, vasovagal syncope is often preceded by a few seconds or a few minutes of warning symptoms. Often, these symptoms include lightheadedness, ringing in the ears, visual disturbances, sweating and/or nausea. Because of such “warning symptoms,” people who have had one or two episodes of syncope are frequently able to tell when an event is about to occur. And importantly, if they recognize the warning symptoms, they are able to abort the blackout simply by lying down and elevating the legs. (“Aborting” syncope is not possible with most other forms of syncope.)
So basically, I learned a lot of interesting things, but nothing new relating to myself. I have vasovagal syncope and I will most likely continue to have episodes for the REST OF MY LIFE. The general treatment seems to be just trying to avoid trigger situations, something that I am completely willing to do unless it is something that I want to do--like getting my belly button pierced. I knew there was a chance I would faint, I worried about it for days beforehand, but I went because I wanted my goddamn belly button pierced!
So far, my triggers appear to be (in order of occurrence): illness, pain, blood loss and anxiety. Pain and anxiety have both made repeat appearances, being stimuli for the latest episode at the same time.
Also, I am strangely compelled to list sources, but this is just for my own personal use, so I'm resisting the urge. Also, I already closed out most of the windows and I am not searching for them all again.
supine
hypoglycemia, hypoglycemic
postprandial
myocardial infarction
metabolic
syncope (oddly enough)
visceral
etiology
morbidity
hemodynamically
systemic vascular resistance
cardioinhibitory
electrocardiogram (EKG)
It's odd how that that medical terminology I had to learn for my phlebotomy class comes in handy for the stupidest things. Um, there were other terms I didn't list because I figured they were common knowledge and thus no one would be surprised that I didn't have to look them up.
Now I have to GO TO SLEEP because I have to get up at seven in the morning and I've been half asleep since ten already. This entry took fifty-one minutes to write--it's now 1:11 in the morning. I'm sure I made a glaring mistake in it somewhere (I usually do), but I will look it over before church tomorrow.
Look, I even remember the fancy word for my 'condition'. Syncope! Fainting! Don't be too shocked, because I've got more fancy words coming up. :D I will define them in parathesis afterwards because if I look back on this in a few weeks, I will have forgotten what the big words mean. Well, okay, at least hypotension.
I... have syncope... um, faint... probably for a mix of three medical reasons, with help from a certain kind of situation. Actually, I'm surprised it wasn't more obvious. ^-^; First of all, I have an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). It's not a problem, it runs in my family and doesn't require medication at all. Second, I'm probably hypoglycemic (low blood sugar). Thirdly, I just realized I verge on having hypotension (low blood pressure). At the doctor's office, I average something like 90/60, which is the lowest you can have and still be within the normal range.
I forget why I started looking at this--I think it had to do with my medication and a commercial on television saying that people with hypotension are chronically sleepy, which I am and so I just wondered--but when I was looking up hypotension, I saw that it can cause syncope, which made me look into that... I've always been incredibly curious about it, but I never got around to researching.
One thing I did not know was that about 3% of the population experience syncope at some point in their lives. Strictly speaking, syncope is caused by an abrupt decrease of blood flow to the brain. Syncope is grouped into at least two categories, cardiac and non-cardiac or cardiac and vasovagal (relating to blood vessels). Otherwise, four categories: neurologic, metabolic, vasovagal (having to do with blood vessels) and cardiac. The percentage breakdown of these causes is: 55% vasovagal, 10% cardiac, 10% neurologic, 5% metabolic or drug-induced, 5% "other," and 10% undiagnosed causes. Only cardiac syncope commonly leads to sudden death. In other cases, increased morbidity occurs with falls or accidents resulting from loss of consciousness.
Arrhythmia and hypotension would be associated with cardiac syncope, hypoglycemia with metabolic syncope. Noncardiac causes tend to be more common in young adults, while cardiac syncope becomes increasingly more frequent with advancing age. Metabolic syncope is also prolonged, both onset and resolution. Generally occurs during exertion, but occasionally when patient is supine.
Syncope is relatively uncommon in pediatric populations. One small retrospective study by Pratt and Fleisher (1989) reports a prevalence of less than 0.1% in children. Migraines are the second most common cause of syncope in young adults.
Vasovagal syncope (also known as cardioneurogenic syncope) is the most common cause of syncope, probably accounting for more than 80% of all syncopal episodes. Vasovagal syncope is a result from exposure outside stimuli that sends an electric signal to the vasimotor center in the brainstem. The vasimotor center sends a signal to the blood vessels in the legs, causing them to dilate. Blood then pools in the legs, drops the heart rate, and causes syncope. Usually the drop in the heart rate is not the cause of the syncope, but the blood pooling in the legs.
Stimuli for vasovagal syncope can be any one of hundreds of things. Pain is a common cause, along with the sight of blood, recieving upsetting news or standing still for a long time. Anyone can have a vasovagal episode, but certain people are particularly prone to such episodes and have mild triggers. Such individuals will often have a history of syncope relating back to their childhood and frequently will describe several different of triggering events. While, as noted, there are scores of possible triggering events for vasovagal syncope, some are quite characteristic and almost always point to vasovagal syncope. Syncope occurring after urinating, defecating, coughing or swallowing, or syncope associated with pain, fright, the sight of blood, or other noxious stimuli, is almost always vasovagal.
In these and other ways, vasovagal syncope tends to be highly situational. It is more likely to occur after a viral illness, after exercise, after a warm shower, or early in the morning - any time that relative dehydration is present, and dilation of the blood vessels in the legs would be more likely to produce a significant drop in blood pressure. Furthermore, vasovagal syncope is often preceded by a few seconds or a few minutes of warning symptoms. Often, these symptoms include lightheadedness, ringing in the ears, visual disturbances, sweating and/or nausea. Because of such “warning symptoms,” people who have had one or two episodes of syncope are frequently able to tell when an event is about to occur. And importantly, if they recognize the warning symptoms, they are able to abort the blackout simply by lying down and elevating the legs. (“Aborting” syncope is not possible with most other forms of syncope.)
So basically, I learned a lot of interesting things, but nothing new relating to myself. I have vasovagal syncope and I will most likely continue to have episodes for the REST OF MY LIFE. The general treatment seems to be just trying to avoid trigger situations, something that I am completely willing to do unless it is something that I want to do--like getting my belly button pierced. I knew there was a chance I would faint, I worried about it for days beforehand, but I went because I wanted my goddamn belly button pierced!
So far, my triggers appear to be (in order of occurrence): illness, pain, blood loss and anxiety. Pain and anxiety have both made repeat appearances, being stimuli for the latest episode at the same time.
Also, I am strangely compelled to list sources, but this is just for my own personal use, so I'm resisting the urge. Also, I already closed out most of the windows and I am not searching for them all again.
supine
hypoglycemia, hypoglycemic
postprandial
myocardial infarction
metabolic
syncope (oddly enough)
visceral
etiology
morbidity
hemodynamically
systemic vascular resistance
cardioinhibitory
electrocardiogram (EKG)
It's odd how that that medical terminology I had to learn for my phlebotomy class comes in handy for the stupidest things. Um, there were other terms I didn't list because I figured they were common knowledge and thus no one would be surprised that I didn't have to look them up.
Now I have to GO TO SLEEP because I have to get up at seven in the morning and I've been half asleep since ten already. This entry took fifty-one minutes to write--it's now 1:11 in the morning. I'm sure I made a glaring mistake in it somewhere (I usually do), but I will look it over before church tomorrow.