I am mystified by this. I didn't get a ton of sleep last night, but it was at least five hours; the last meal I had was dinner yesterday, which I ate around seven, and it had protein (chicken) and vegetables (asparagus) and carbohydrates (rice).
I was taking an extremely long shower (so it can't be dehydration, can it?) and after a while the shower was not fun anymore but actually really really sucked, and I hadn't even put conditioner in my hair yet, so I was trying to stick it out, but then my vision started blacking out. I put on some clothes and staggered into the kitchen to get cornflakes so I would have food in my stomach, but I couldn't manage to open the drawer where I keep the cornflakes, let alone find a bowl and pour them sensibly into a bowl. So I decided to go into my room and lie down and then I passed out in the hall! One minute I was upright and my vision was going black, and the next minute I was like, Ow, my head hurts, and everything has turned sideways and this is a not-very-nice carpet I am lying on.
I feel better now that I've eaten cornflakes and had some water to drink, but I have no idea where this came from. The only time this kind of thing has come close to happening, I had had about two hours of sleep and I didn't fall all the way down but just banged my knees up a bit (this was also after taking a shower).
Do hot showers make one pass out? Is it possible to be dehydrated while taking a shower? (I felt extremely thirsty.)
Yuck. This is so not an opportune time.
Posted by Eduardo St. Elmo (Member # 9566) on :
I hope you're feeling better.
I've actually read somewhere that taking prolonged showers can be bad for your health (no joke). It has something to do with tiny particals tha are in the water. With all the steam a shower produces, it's possible to inhale these things and get sick. Unfortunately I don't have any particulars, but there's probably more info on the net.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Unexplained blackouts like that are a good reason to automatically schedule a visit to a doctor.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
I can't, I'm not allowed to register at the health centre until 24 November.
I'm wondering if it was heat exhaustion. The shower room in my dorm is very small and not very well ventilated, and I was taking the official longest shower ever.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Well then, I hope it was just something innocuous!
But watch out for repeat episodes, or bouts of lightheadedness.
Posted by Lissande (Member # 350) on :
I used to almost black out in the shower fairly frequently, and one of my friends has to take lukewarm showers or else she passes out. The long shower can cause it, definitely if it was hot. I second the advice to watch for lightheadedness.
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
The chlorine in water can cause dehydration and exhaustion. I had the same problem when I moved into the dorms in a town that has water problems. The water is very chlorinated and I used to feel so bad after taking my usual long showers.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
If you are prone to blacking out for any reason, very hot showers (or baths) can be a trigger for passing out, yes. I learned this when I was pregnant with my first (pregnancy makes my black-outs much more frequent; I have low blood pressure issues, they run in the family.) What I learned is that heating up your body like that for too long (long sauna, shower, hot tub soak, etc.) can actually cause your heart to have to pump harder, making it harder to pump blood to your brain. (I think that's right, anyway.) Also, if you're asthmatic, moist air, especially warm moist air, is a trigger for many people, and general lack of oxygen definitely contributes.
If it happens again: 1)Open a window, if possible. Get some ventilation. 2) Turn the hot down and the cold up a little, to help cool down your body. 3) Sit down. On the side of the tub, the floor of the shower, whatever. You do NOT want to fall and hit your head and drown in a shower. It's a very ignoble way to go. If just plain sitting down (after opening a window, etc.) doesn't do it, put your head down on your arms for a minute. Just don't let yourself fall asleep. 4) End the shower as soon as possible. I understand the need to condition your hair, I do it, too. But you need to get some air and cool off to feel better. So wrap it up and get out, and not just out of the shower, out of the room. 5) If all else fails and you can't make it out, call for help. Yes, it's embarrassing to call for help in the bathroom. It's also more embarrassing to be carried out naked by the paramedics if something happens to you.
Please take this seriously and, if it persists, do go see a doctor about it. If it's never happened before and you felt dehydrated, it's probably just dehydration. So be careful to avoid that in the future. But if it happens again, don't assume. Keep track of any other symptoms and see a doctor as soon as you can if ANYTHING else happens.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
(I should totally name that The Five Rules of Conduct When Dizzy In the Shower. )
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I'd also recommend medical attention as soon as possible. The shower does seem likely as contributing. Hot water makes the blood vessels dilate, lowering blood pressure. You sweat, dehydrating yourself, and further lowering blood pressure. More moisture in the air makes it harder to get as much oxygen.
Try taking shorter, cooler showers. Hydrate well. See a doctor.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
quote:If you are prone to blacking out for any reason, very hot showers (or baths) can be a trigger for passing out, yes.
I can attest to this. When I am feeling less than my best (i.e. very tired or sick or hungry) I often become dizzy after taking a hot shower.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Wierd, I have low blood pressure and I am tall so I used to have a history of blacking out if I stood up quickly from a prone position.
Showers don't effect me in any way however, I very much enjoy long hot showers when I am tired or need to relax my muscles.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
Maybe it's a case of the steam being bad air to keep on breathing in. Also the water is very chlorine-y here, so that could easily have made everything worse.
Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
quote:Originally posted by Fyfe: so I was trying to stick it out, but then my vision started blacking out. I put on some clothes and staggered into the kitchen to get cornflakes so I would have food in my stomach, but I couldn't manage to open the drawer where I keep the cornflakes, let alone find a bowl and pour them sensibly into a bowl. So I decided to go into my room and lie down and then I passed out in the hall!
I shouldn't give any medical advice other than check with your doctor, but yeah. Standing in a hot shower can cause a flushing reaction that can lower blood pressure and eventually fainting if you don't sit down. You should have sat right down instead of wandering all over the house. Squatting down is an excellent way of bringing blood back up the the brain quickly. Any time your vision starts to go black it's trying to tell you something. Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
[Agreeing with Theca ...]
Feeling faint (or actual fainting) is generally due to having blood flow to the brain decreased for whatever reason. The body corrects this situation by dropping the brain down level to the heart; i.e., by placing you horizontal. Voila! Blood flow to the brain improves.
Decreased blood flow can happen for a variety of reasons. 1. Heat will make your blood vessels dilate in order to increase blood flow to the skin (note: this is away from the center of the body, where your brain is) and "shed" the body's extra heat to the air. 2.Standing fast can make your blood pool in the lower half of your body (note: away from the brain), especially if your body's compensatory blood vessel & nerve coordinated response to a change in position doesn't work quite as fast as other people's, whether because of genetics (there is normal variation in the vasovagal response) or because you are already dehydrated and thus starting with a tank half-empty.
You are going to have to shower for a verrrrrrrrrrry long time in order to rehydrate through your skin. This strategy would work well for amphibians, but not so much for land-dwellers. Think about it: if you could absorb a lot quickly through your skin, you would also be able to lose a lot quickly through the skin. (That's why amphibians often dry out relatively quickly if they don't have access to enough water.) Our skin is built to be a generally low-permeable barrier. Sure, you swell up a little (and get wrinkly from that swelling) when you soak for a long time, but that's a pretty superficial change.
No, if you want to hydrate, it has to be oral or by IV. Alternatively, you could use the mucus membranes of the colon or uterus to absorb a lot of water through extensive irrigation, but that's generally considered a problem (as in a potentially fatal side effect of overly enthusiastic colonic irrigation), not a solution. (Note: don't try this at home.)
The skin absorbs water fairly slowly and poorly. The mucus membranes absorb much better, as they were designed for absorption -- but they are generally confined to the interior of the body to keep them from drying out.
If you feel faint, do as Theca suggested and squat, or just lie down flat. Elevating your feet above your heart level also helps shunt the blood centrally.
Be careful. Stay safe. Don't take hot showers when dehydrated. Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
quote:Originally posted by Fyfe: I can't, I'm not allowed to register at the health centre until 24 November.
I'm wondering if it was heat exhaustion. The shower room in my dorm is very small and not very well ventilated, and I was taking the official longest shower ever.
I've gotten very lightheaded in the shower, usually when my blood sugar is low. Or my blood pressure. Whatever it is in my blood, which is probably both. Because after all, you've just gotten out of bed....so you're standing, which can make you lightheaded...and you haven't eaten in a while.
...or what Theca and the Claw said.
-pH
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
SUGAR.
That's happened to me before, and I felt better the second I ate a piece of chocolate. It's low blood sugar. It happens to me sometimes when I get my period, since you lose a lot of sugar (/nutrients)through that.
When I get low blood sugar my visions goes back and I can't stand up. I don't actually go unconscious, though. (I don't know if you said you went unconscious). I always assumed it was dehydration, and drinking water helps a little bit, but what you really need is sugar. Fruit juice is the best thing in a case like that. Nothing better. It might make you throw up, but that's okay, just drink more until you hold it in.
That's the knowledge I've gained from personal experience, I don't actually if what I'm talking about is right.
All that shower stuff is really interesting though, I've always wondered why I get nausious when I shower first thing in the morning.
[ October 25, 2006, 07:22 PM: Message edited by: Soara ]
Posted by Samarkand (Member # 8379) on :
Oh yeah, I sometimes (like once or twice a month, maybe) get dizzy when I take hot showers, or stand up really fast after sitting for waaay too long, or don't eat my Toblerone, or don't get enough sleep, etc. I figure it's because I have super low blood pressure (the nurses always say, "Do you feel faint when you stand up?" And I'm like "No . . ." and then they look at me funny and watch me carefully when I do stand up like I'm suddenly going to develop a fainting disorder. I guess it's low enough that most other people would be collapsing all over the place.) Anyway, I've only fainted once in my life, and it was because I got two hours of sleep and then took like an hour long hot shower and then blowdried my hair upside down for about ten minutes and flipped it back up really fast. It turns out that you should not do that.
Theca has it right - just sit down on the nice floor of the shower, and turn the temp down a bit, and breathe . . . lalala . . . breathe . . . and then you'll feel fine. Also do things like sleeping and eating enough to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Samarkand, the last time I had a baby they had to keep re-taking my blood pressure to stop the alarms going off. They used to ask my mom at her doctors' appointments when she was pregnant, "How are you still walking around?" I had never fainted until I got pregnant. That did it. This last preganancy I knew to expect it and was able to control it better, though. What I didn't expect was that it has continued past six months post-partum now.
Always amusing when the nurses are looking at you going "Do you feel okay?" and you're looking at them like they're crazy, though...
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
You can actually get dehydrated while taking a shower. As CT explained, human skin is a great barrier for water. We simply don't adsorbe any significant amount of water through our skin. On the other hand, when you start to get too hot you may begin to sweat profusely. In the a shower, you won't notice the sweating but its still happening. What's more, the hot shower can screw up your bodies temperature regulation mechanisms. Sweating won't work to cool you down because none of the sweat evaporated. Sending extra blood to your skin will actually cause you to heat up faster rather than cool down. As a result, it would be fairly easy to suffer some sort of heat exaustion when taking a really long hot shower.
I think its not a problem for most people because we live in houses with limited hot water supplies. Before we actually overheat our bodies in the shower, we run out of hot water.
If you start to get dizzy in the shower, its probably a good idea to turn down the heat. It might even be a good idea to switch to cool water.
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
Ehh now I don't want to take a shower....
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Eh, take one anyway. Please. Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
Or I could jump in the river and rub sand on my skin.
Posted by unicornwhisperer (Member # 294) on :
quote:Originally posted by Soara: SUGAR.
That's happened to me before, and I felt better the second I ate a piece of chocolate.
Reminds me of Harry Potter and when he needed to eat chocolate after having his happiness sucked up by a dementor...
I have low blood pressure too. In the mornings I feel like I had been running a lot and feel blah (when I hadn't been running at all) It was worse when I was pregnant. Nurses would take my blood pressure and say "Barely alive." because it was so low. Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
Because of my inner ear condition, I've had similar things happen on several occasions, mostly due to nausea, loss of balance, vertigo... whatever you call it.
Usually I don't lose consciousness, or if I do it's because I've already hit the floor and I decide "OK, I'm going to sleep now" because I'm physically incapable of standing.
I mean, if I'm lying flat, and although I'm fully conscious, alert and talkative I'm incapable of lifting my head more than an inch, what the hell else am I going to do? Count the popcorn on the ceiling?
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