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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbum here the some of our weird bodily phenomena

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Speaker 1: kind of makes sense. An ice cream headache, for example,

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Speaker 1: you know what you did to get there, you know

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Speaker 1: you deserved it, and you have absolutely no regrets. Others

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Speaker 1: are a bit of a mystery, like when you stand

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Speaker 1: up quickly and see a dizzying array of stars. The

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Speaker 1: medical term for this is orthostatic hypotension, and the good

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Speaker 1: news is a sudden bout of lightheadedness from jumping out

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Speaker 1: of your seat probably isn't a big deal, oh, whether

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Speaker 1: you realize it or not. In the split second it

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Speaker 1: takes to stand up, blood from your brain travels down

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Speaker 1: toward your feet thanks to you know gravity, Your veins

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Speaker 1: there helpfully accommodate it, and it takes your cardiovascular system

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Speaker 1: a heartbeat or two to adjust to the change in

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Speaker 1: system wide pressure and get the right amount of blood

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Speaker 1: into your brain. Again, this is exacerbated if your pulse

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Speaker 1: is a little slow at the moment, as it might

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Speaker 1: be if you've been sitting quietly for a while. But

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Speaker 1: there are lots of reasons why your pulse might be slow.

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Speaker 1: Your heart rate has to do with your cardiovascular fitness,

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Speaker 1: perhaps obviously, but also your hydration levels, whether you've eaten recently,

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Speaker 1: and any drugs you're taking, including both medications and things

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Speaker 1: like caffeine and alcohol. A normal heart rate when you're

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Speaker 1: at rest can be anywhere from sixty to one hundred

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Speaker 1: beats per minute. Athletes and other people who enjoy a

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Speaker 1: good workout tend to have resting heart rates on the

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Speaker 1: lower end. That's because, in general, exercise makes your heart stronger,

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Speaker 1: allowing it to pump out more blood in fewer beats.

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Speaker 1: This is usually a great thing because it means your

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Speaker 1: heart is strong, but that slow pace can cause dizziness

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Speaker 1: when you stand up suddenly from rest. You may also

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Speaker 1: get a little dizzy when you go from intel cardioaction

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Speaker 1: to your post workout rest phase. If that happens, consider

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Speaker 1: a longer cool down to ease the transition. Conversely, you

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Speaker 1: might get lightheaded if you've been just standing in one

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Speaker 1: place for a while and suddenly walk across the room.

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Speaker 1: Blood can pool a bit in your legs when you're

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Speaker 1: standing around, and your heart might take a second to

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Speaker 1: compensate for the sudden need to supply your muscles with

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Speaker 1: blood as you get moving again. Dehydration can also be

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Speaker 1: a cause. After all, your blood is mostly water, so

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Speaker 1: your blood float can slow down when you haven't had

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Speaker 1: enough liquids. This can happen first thing in the morning,

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Speaker 1: when you're getting out of bed, or when you've been

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Speaker 1: sweating a lot from heat or exercise or both, or

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Speaker 1: if you're like me and you just forget to drink water.

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Speaker 1: Water in general is good. This kind of lightheadedness can

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Speaker 1: also strike after a meal or a sugary snack, which

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Speaker 1: can send your body into what's called rest and digest mode.

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Speaker 1: This is an automatic function of your nervous system that

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Speaker 1: diverts blood flow and energy to your digestive track to

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Speaker 1: help you digest the food you just ate so it

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Speaker 1: drops your blood pressure. It can help to eat smaller

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Speaker 1: and more frequent meals and to limit the amount of

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Speaker 1: sugar and simple carbohydrates like white bread, white rice, and

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Speaker 1: skinless potatoes that you consume at any given setting. If

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Speaker 1: you experience the dizziness of orthostatic hypotension, often try moving

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Speaker 1: slower when you transition between positions or from stillness into motion,

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Speaker 1: and try to keep moving a bit more, avoiding sitting

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Speaker 1: or standing in one place for very long. But let's

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Speaker 1: note here that there is a difference between a slight

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Speaker 1: sense of dizziness and a major case of the spins.

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Speaker 1: If you feel like the room is spinning even once

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Speaker 1: you've stayed stationary for a moment, you might have an

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Speaker 1: inner ear issue called vertigo. And nearly forty percent of

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Speaker 1: American adults experience vertigo at least once over the course

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Speaker 1: of their life, and it can be a big deal,

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Speaker 1: So consult a medical professional right away if you suspect

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Speaker 1: that this is what you're experiencing. The bottom line is

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Speaker 1: that the occasional about of dizziness is probably nothing to

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Speaker 1: worry about. But if you're experiencing something more severe than

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Speaker 1: a slight sensation, or you're feeling lightheaded when you're just sitting,

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Speaker 1: make an appointment with the healthcare providers. They can assess

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Speaker 1: any more serious issues. Let's end on some quick numbers here.

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Speaker 1: The average heart rate is seventy two beats per minute.

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Speaker 1: That means that in the course of one day it

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Speaker 1: beats over one hundred thousand times. In one year, the

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Speaker 1: heart beats almost thirty eight million times, and if you

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Speaker 1: reach the age of seventy you've experienced some two point

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Speaker 1: five billion heartbeats. Today's episode is based on the article

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Speaker 1: ever stand Up and Get Dizzy on HowStuffWorks dot com

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Speaker 1: written by Michelle Constantinovsky. Brain Stuff is ret of iHeartRadio

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Speaker 1: in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it is produced

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Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.