Loss of consciousness is one of the most common ailments that can affect even an apparently healthy person. We can talk about loss of consciousness only if a person has no motor activity, he does not respond to treatment and does not perceive the surrounding reality. About a third of the world's population at least once in their life experienced this condition, about three percent are forced to constantly lose consciousness for some physiological reasons
general information
In fact, loss of consciousness is an acute special form of cerebral vascular insufficiency, which is characterized by a violation of any nervous activity. Its cause is a lack of flow of arterial blood to the brain, as a result of which the body's response to the outside world is significantly reduced or completely disappears, a person ceases to feel his own body.
Causes of loss of consciousness
There are many reasons for the loss of consciousness, but in any case, it always occurs with damage to the brain. Most often, this condition occurs with a head injury, sudden hemorrhage, as a result of electrical injury or poisoning. Also, the cause may be bleeding, heart disease, shock. It was noted that the temperature regime has a significant influence on the body's work - if the air temperature is too much different from the usual (room) temperature, then overheating or overcooling occurs, which in turn causes vasospasm.
Concomitant diseases, such as diabetes mellitus or fever, arrhythmia, can also cause loss of consciousness. In poor health, do not use alcohol and drugs that negatively affect the work of the heart and brain. Sometimes loss of consciousness, the causes of which can be very diverse, becomes a side effect of taking any drugs, but in this case, taking the medicine should be stopped immediately. The causes of loss of consciousness can be very diverse, sometimes they are associated with the individual characteristics of a particular organism.
Symptoms of this condition
As a rule, loss of consciousness does not apply to suddenly developing conditions. Long before the onset of cerebral insufficiency, a person may experience dizziness, a feeling of lightheadedness, tinnitus, severe weakness, and excessive sweating is observed. Sometimes a separate sign of loss of consciousness can be an increase in intestinal motility or numbness of the extremities.
The process itself usually does not take much time, loss of consciousness most often lasts a few seconds. It all starts with a sudden pallor, a decrease in blood pressure, which leads to a decrease in muscle tone. Because of this, a person’s eyes are closed, he falls, unable to maintain his former position in space. After a few seconds, the patient begins to recover, opens his eyes, cardiac activity and blood supply to all parts of the brain resumes.
First aid
Each of us should be prepared for the fact that at any moment a person from our environment may experience loss of consciousness, first aid in this case should be provided immediately. First of all, care must be taken to prevent suffocation - to lay the patient on his back and turn his head to the side so that the tongue does not sink. If there are appropriate medical skills and stimulants are available, then an injection can be made to stimulate vascular tone, but it is advisable to do this only if the loss of consciousness is delayed.
In any case, loss of consciousness is an indication for a visit to a neurologist, especially if seizures are observed quite often and for no apparent reason.