Blackouts/fainting?

ok, my friend who is a health 35 yr old male has began to suffer from fainting for no apperant reason.
he has just felt dizzy and went down for no obvious reason, it can happen when he is standing for a long time and he just feels dizzy and then drops and when he comes too he is fine.
the doctor has test his blood pressure, after his first attack, and said it is fine, he tested his heart on the second occasion and said it was ok and now my friend does not want to go back to the doctor as he feels he is getting no help.
today he scared me as he was out in his garage and felt he eyes go funny, he went blind for a few moments but felt fine but couldn't find his way back to the house, he sat down and then he felt dizzy and his sight came back.
then he felt just fine
can anyone help?????

my sister used to feel faint, and her vision blurred when she was having migraines! take your friend to the doctor!

That is really weird. The doctors can't find anything out about it? Maybe it runs in his family and ask around if they ever fainted for no reason. If its not natural then maybe it would be haunting. There must be some cause for this. Find the cause first then the problem.

Also lots of stress can cause this. Is he working too hard perhaps?

i dunno. but i get this sometimes. when watching tv or on the com for a while, if i get up and walk away, i get this dizzy kinda feeling? and my vision gets all dark, i have to stop moving and lean on something for awhile. sometimes it lasts for a few seconds, sometimes almost twenty secs. Once, just ONCE, i fainted as a result of tt.. i leaned on the door and then blacked out. the next moment i was on the floor, my head hurt badly from hitting the ground. =x

Low or high blood sugar can cause the type of problems that you have described. They can also be caused by an imbalance in the chemicals in the brain. Don't give up keep going to the Dr. These things are very hard to diagnose. It took 15 years of passing out at the most awkward times for Dr. to finally find out I had Hypoglycemia

I know it sounds trite, but he could be dehydrated. Those are symptoms of dehydration. Have him be sure to drink a lot more water than he usually does and see if the symptoms go away.

Fainting or syncope is a sudden (and generally momentary) loss of consciousness or blacking out, due to a lack of sufficient blood and oxygen reaching the brain.
Factors that influence fainting are taking in too little food and fluids, low blood pressure, hypoglycemia, growth spurts, physical exercise in excess of the energy reserve of the body, and lack of sleep. Even standing up too quickly or being in too hot a room can cause fainting. Recommended treatment is to allow the person to lie on the ground with his or her legs a little elevated. As the dizziness and the momentary blindness passes, the person may experience visual disturbances in the form of small bright dots (phosphene). These will also pass within a few minutes.

.More serious causes of fainting include cardiac (heart-related) causes such as an abnormal heart rhythm (an arrhythmia), where the heart beats too slowly, too rapidly or too irregularly to pump enough blood to the brain. Some arrythmias can be life-threatening. Other important cardiac conditions that can manifest with syncope include subclavian steal syndrome and aortic stenosis.

Syncope can be brought on by a variety of heart-related and non-heart-related circulatory problems and activities, including simply getting up too quickly. Because of these many causes, there are subclassifications:

vasovagal syncope, this is the common faint associated with a stress response of the autonomic nervous system which can either suddenly lower the pulse rate, the blood pressure or both together. It is one of the neurally-mediated reflex syncopes.
carotid sinus syncope, also is associated with abnormal sensitivity to external pressure over the region of the nerve sensory organ at the bifurcation of the external and internal carotid arteries in the neck. Another reflex syncope.
tussive syncope induced by coughing fits, also called larangeal syncope. (Layterm: tussive syncopathy)
micturition syncope a faint during or shortly after urination. It is also one of the neurally-mediated reflex syncopes.
seinfeld syncope "Seinfeld syncope" is an unusual but recognized form of situational syncope likely to have a similar pathophysiological origin to tussive syncope.
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i don't think it's anything to do with his heart it sound more of a brain problem,maybe he is developing epolepsy (soz for spelling) which from what i know can start of as black outs and fainting and progresses thro a number of years,hope not tho.tell him to be firm with the doc or ask for another docs advice

Sounds like he has postural hypo-tension. The BP drops acutely whenever one is standing for too long. This may happen if your friend's job involves standing without changing the posture much. The easy way to get around this problem is to take frequent breaks. sit or better still lie down for 5 minutes and then resume work. Or he could lie down as soon as his eyes feel funny. Another method is to sit down with the head on one's lap as soon as he feels he is going to get the episode. Since the episode can occur even after getting up suddenly from a reclining position, he should first sit up after getting up from bed and then only stand gradually

Postural hypo tension occurs due to a relative lack of blood supply to the brain. Its usually heralded by yawning, blurring of vision, inability to sustain the upright posture and the person may fall down. It is also called syncope.

Do rule out drug related causes of this - antidepressants (tri cyclic antidepressants), drugs for managing high blood pressure etc. also produce postural hypo tension. I think we can .safely rule out cardiac causes such as heart block. Addison's disease is another cause

Lastly adding a little extra salt to the diet may help keep his BP up.

Hi .. It sounds like your friend could be having small epileptic fits known as petite mals .. I would advise him to have simple ( & painless ) tests, as if this is identified it can be kept in check ..some simple things to be avoided are flashing strobe type lights etc. which can affect people prone to this as can computer/tv screens etc

Blacking out is definitely a serious problem because one could hurt very badly when blacking out. It could be due to many many reasons, some of them needing immediate attention. Hypotension due to volume loss, heart problems leading to reduced positive pressure of flow to the brain, intake of drugs, inner ear problems causing vertigo to more serious ones like ischemia in the brain or even a tumor in the brain. Usually a doctor would rule out the more obvious causes, but if persistent would pursue further workup. So giving up on the doctor is absolutely the incorrect step. But some of the causes outlined could be:

Amaurosis fugax. A transient blindness that may result from a transient ischemia due to carotid artery insufficiency, retinal artery embolus.

Transient bilateral visual loss (TBVL) in patents less than 45 years is usually benign. TBVL is almost always associated with severe occlusive disease of the internal carotid artery (ICA), aortic arch, or bilateral occipital lobe ischemia. Patients with ICA often have other systemic evidence of atherosclerosis, such as coronary and peripheral vascular disease. Smoking, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension are also risk factors.

Drugs
Sudden monocular visual loss due to nonarteric anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) has been reported in a small number of patients taking sildenafil (Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra), and tadalafil (Cialis) for erectile dysfunction. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised health care professionals of the potential risk of sudden visual loss that may be attributed to the use of phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitors

Don't wait on one doctor to give you the results, go and get a second opinion. More often than not one doctor may miss something (e.g. not checking for a specific thing). My friend died because of it. GET A SECOND OPINION PLEASE!!!

It can't hurt you at all.
I would look into getting some blood work done