Tag Archives: fainting

They’re young and athletic. They’re also ill with a condition called POTS.

Kaleigh Levine was running drills in the gym with her lacrosse team at Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, when everything turned black.

“The coach wanted me to get back in the line, but I couldn’t see,” she remembered.

Her vision returned after a few minutes, but several months and a half-dozen medical specialists later, the 20-year-old goalie was diagnosed with a mysterious condition known as POTS.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04/10/pots-medical-condition-athletes-covid-pandemic/

What causes fainting? Scientists finally have an answer

“Whether as a result of heat, hunger, standing for too long or merely the sight of blood or needles, 40% of people faint at least once in their lives.

But exactly what causes these brief losses of consciousness — which researchers call syncope — has been a mystery..

Now, researchers have discovered a neural pathway that controls the process, involving a group of sensory neurons that connect the heart to the brainstem”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03450-3