What does it mean if you have a momentary feeling of fainting?

The second time it happened this morning. I exercised at the gym this morning. I felt okay during the exercise;

So many things it could be. Dehydration, low blood pressure, low sugar… there is no way for anyone to know. Make note of what you have ate and drank and what you we’re doing on the days this has happened and and discuss with your doctor. Good luck!

May the hypertension drugs have given you hypotension.
Ask the Dr. that prescribed the medicine.

I have fainting spells and the dr. Prescribed ramen , and compression socks. To counter out the low blood pressure.

Low blood pressure. I had this problem years ago. A cough would leave me nearly passed out.

It could be low blood pressure problems, problems with your sugar levels, & it could even be problems with your potassium levels. Since you’re taking meds for hypertension, I think I’d start with a followup visit to that doctor to ask IF it’s possible the meds are creating the problem. It might be something as simple as a change in meds which is not uncommon with hypertension meds. Maybe the meds have worked so well that you’re now having low blood pressure. In my family, it would most likely mean low potassium levels. I could drink aglass of V8 juice & everything would be fine for a few days.

Do check with your doctor, especially since you’re taking a medication. I just wanted to share that it also could be nothing (but again, do check with your doc!)—when I stand up too quickly I get lightheaded sometimes, especially if I’ve been sitting for a while/not being very active for a while. This has been true since I was a teen—went to the doctor back then to ask about it, and she said for some people it’s normal. (But she also did some tests to make sure it wasn’t anything else, which for me it wasn’t.)

I might have a trick to helps alleviate it for you in the moment, too—squeeze your glutes! I’ve been told that it has something to do with the blood in the muscle getting pushed back into the bloodstream, so more blood gets to your brain more quickly? No idea if that’s true, but squeezing the muscles does seem to help for me.

Ask your doctor to do an ECG (EKG) on you to check for heart arrhythmias

Also double check the dose level on the hypertension medication and make sure that you are taking the correct amount.

Good health!

Maybe you are a little overmedicated on your BP meds. Maybe check your BP a little more often and after exercising. Getting an EKG isn’t a bad idea as suggested above, but a one minute EKG can easily show nothing when there is something, but if it does show something you know right away. Better yet is a stress test if you see a relationship to exercise. If it happens very randomly you could wear a monitor for a day, or few days, to catch what your heart is doing when you feel dizzy, but the stress test is going to monitor your heart and blood pressure.

Take this seriously! No driving when you think it might come on. If it’s happening after exercise don’t drive right after exercising, give yourself time.

Thyroid can also produce a spacey feeling, not so much like you’ll actually pass out usually, except to say that the spacey is often related to blood pressure being very high or low caused by the thyroid being off. If your thyroid is unstable you would want to treat that as an underlying cause for your blood pressure problems. Or, related cause anyway. So, hopefully since you are a BP patient they test your thyroid at least once a year, but no guarantee they are, if not I would get that checked too. Even if your thyroid is off, if it’s that your BP is dropping too low right now, then you still need to adjust your BP meds.

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago. Like you I was seated and faints are usually the result of standing up suddenly. I went to the doctor who asked me a few questions then checked my blood pressure and pulse but everything seemed OK. She didn’t seem at all concerned. I would recommend speaking to your doctor about it.

@flutherother Are you checking your blood pressure yourself more often now to see if it’s dipping? Feeling faint while having been upright for a lot of time isn’t normal. When it happens when you first get up it isn’t “normal” either, but it’s not unusual, especially if dehydrated. Low blood volume can make your BP adjust meant from lying down to sitting to standing inadequate.

@LostInParadise Which reminds me make sure you’re well hydrated to help stave off BP drops. Also, is your BP drug a diuretic? Or, have you been trying to cut salt? Maybe you are losing more water than usual, or your electrolytes are screwy.

You could get a blood test right after exercising to see where you are at. My doctor did that for me once for a different concern.

@JLeslie My blood pressure is a little on the high side but I am not on any medication for it. I leave it to the professionals to check it. I was outside in cold and windy weather without a hat when it happened and I think that may be partly to blame for my feeling faint.

@flutherother My advice is don’t leave it only to the professionals. They don’t check it enough, unless you are going to the doctor a few times a week. I’m not a doctor, so that’s just lay advice.