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Short Summary
Main recommendation: If you pass out, or faint repeatedly, see a heart team such as Intermountain Medical Center's cardiology staff, and most people can be helped with hydration, staying active, and salts if needed. Dr. Jared Bunch explains that fainting happens when blood pressure drops, the heart beats faster to compensate, and that rapid beating lowers pressure further, causing a brief loss of consciousness that usually resolves quickly once lying down.
Key Points
- Fainting is typically a reflex: blood pressure falls, the heart speeds up, and the faster beating paradoxically drops pressure more, leading to unconsciousness.
- People usually wake quickly after hitting the ground because much less blood pressure is needed when lying down than standing.
- Dr. Bunch said about 2 to 3 in 10 people who faint end up injuring themselves, often by hitting their head or falling down stairs, which can cause confusion.
- Fainting can be followed by flushing, warmth, nausea, vomiting, or fatigue, and the cause of the fatigue is not fully understood.
- Fainting is usually multi-factorial: low baseline blood pressure, youth and fitness, illness, not having eaten, and dehydration at high altitude, such as during skiing.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Stay hydrated, especially when skiing or exercising at high altitude, since people there lose substantial water and can become dehydrated. Stay active, and use salts if needed. Seek evaluation from a cardiology or heart team, particularly if you have passed out more than once. The doctor noted that some rare causes are excluded during evaluation.
- Falling onto a soft surface like snow lowers injury risk, but head injuries from falls onto hard surfaces or ledges are the main concern.
- Dr. Bunch said the Brooke Graham incident was a typical faint, with multiple contributing factors rather than a single cause.
- Brooke Graham stated she felt fine after sitting up and planned to stay in the valley the rest of the day as a precaution while continuing tests.
- Fainting in people who are young and fit with normal to low blood pressure is common, and the same episode can have several overlapping triggers.
Bottom Line
According to Dr. Bunch, fainting is usually a brief, self-limiting reflex caused by a blood pressure drop, but a fall can cause injury, and repeat episodes warrant medical evaluation.
