Under the influence of stress or severe fatigue, a person may briefly lose consciousness – faint. Do salt and sugar help keep the body in good shape, how important is exercise for preventing fainting, and can loss of consciousness be a sign of anemia, Pravda.Ru told gastroenterologist, therapist Nikita Kharlov.

— What are the most common causes of fainting?

— Firstly, there is a deficiency of salt in the body, also known as sodium.

Secondly, there is a lack of energy in the body, most often low blood glucose.

These conditions can lead to a decrease in blood pressure. As a result, people lose consciousness.

In addition, fainting may be the result of some event that greatly shocked the person and caused him powerful stimulation of the nervous system. In this case, the nervous system begins to consume excess oxygen and enters the excitotoxicity mode, when there is high stimulation, but no useful work is performed, oxygen is wasted. If this condition continues for a long time, then it is dangerous for the body. And for this purpose, the body has a special switch, which, like a fuse, trips, and the brain “turns off” the person so that he calms down.

You should see a doctor if fainting occurs frequently, several times a week.

— What preventative measures exist to prevent fainting?

– You can’t give up salt. Sodium will maintain blood pressure and metabolic rate for vital energy. And you need to clearly understand how long you can last without food and what food restores your strength the fastest.

The pharmacy sells glucose tablets; you don’t even need a prescription for them. It’s literally blood sugar. You dissolve it – and that’s it, you will no longer faint due to lack of energy.

And at the same time, they recommend a pinch of salt to maintain sodium.

A pinch of salt in your mouth. We washed it down with a glass of water. And a glucose tablet under the tongue, dissolve. Once the symptoms have passed, you can spit out the tablet so that there is no excess sugar.

— Maybe there is therapeutic gymnastics? A trained person has better oxygen.

“He has better stamina without oxygen.” This person will have increased stamina, the threshold after which he faints. Therefore, you need to train. But training should be regular. Strength training will do. They train blood vessels best. Cardio exercises, that is, long walks, jogging.

The main criterion is whether you can use it for a long time to train your system. Because if you did it for a month and then quit, it won’t work.

— Maybe it’s worth checking the level of iron in the blood? They say that with anemia there is frequent fainting.

— At the initial stage and with a mild degree of anemia, there will be no fainting. But anemia, especially for women, needs to be treated: they lose more blood and with it more iron is lost.

Men do not have a menstrual cycle, so anemia is not so important for them. With anemia, the following is lost:

• iron,
• copper,
• vitamin B2.

And blood iron alone is not enough: look at hemoglobin, ferritin. If all this is reduced, then anemia needs to be treated. The referral for tests is given by the therapist.