Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbum here the some of our weird bodily phenomena
Speaker 1: kind of makes sense. An ice cream headache, for example,
Speaker 1: you know what you did to get there, you know
Speaker 1: you deserved it, and you have absolutely no regrets. Others
Speaker 1: are a bit of a mystery, like when you stand
Speaker 1: up quickly and see a dizzying array of stars. The
Speaker 1: medical term for this is orthostatic hypotension, and the good
Speaker 1: news is a sudden bout of lightheadedness from jumping out
Speaker 1: of your seat probably isn't a big deal, oh, whether
Speaker 1: you realize it or not. In the split second it
Speaker 1: takes to stand up, blood from your brain travels down
Speaker 1: toward your feet thanks to you know gravity, Your veins
Speaker 1: there helpfully accommodate it, and it takes your cardiovascular system
Speaker 1: a heartbeat or two to adjust to the change in
Speaker 1: system wide pressure and get the right amount of blood
Speaker 1: into your brain. Again, this is exacerbated if your pulse
Speaker 1: is a little slow at the moment, as it might
Speaker 1: be if you've been sitting quietly for a while. But
Speaker 1: there are lots of reasons why your pulse might be slow.
Speaker 1: Your heart rate has to do with your cardiovascular fitness,
Speaker 1: perhaps obviously, but also your hydration levels, whether you've eaten recently,
Speaker 1: and any drugs you're taking, including both medications and things
Speaker 1: like caffeine and alcohol. A normal heart rate when you're
Speaker 1: at rest can be anywhere from sixty to one hundred
Speaker 1: beats per minute. Athletes and other people who enjoy a
Speaker 1: good workout tend to have resting heart rates on the
Speaker 1: lower end. That's because, in general, exercise makes your heart stronger,
Speaker 1: allowing it to pump out more blood in fewer beats.
Speaker 1: This is usually a great thing because it means your
Speaker 1: heart is strong, but that slow pace can cause dizziness
Speaker 1: when you stand up suddenly from rest. You may also
Speaker 1: get a little dizzy when you go from intel cardioaction
Speaker 1: to your post workout rest phase. If that happens, consider
Speaker 1: a longer cool down to ease the transition. Conversely, you
Speaker 1: might get lightheaded if you've been just standing in one
Speaker 1: place for a while and suddenly walk across the room.
Speaker 1: Blood can pool a bit in your legs when you're
Speaker 1: standing around, and your heart might take a second to
Speaker 1: compensate for the sudden need to supply your muscles with
Speaker 1: blood as you get moving again. Dehydration can also be
Speaker 1: a cause. After all, your blood is mostly water, so
Speaker 1: your blood float can slow down when you haven't had
Speaker 1: enough liquids. This can happen first thing in the morning,
Speaker 1: when you're getting out of bed, or when you've been
Speaker 1: sweating a lot from heat or exercise or both, or
Speaker 1: if you're like me and you just forget to drink water.
Speaker 1: Water in general is good. This kind of lightheadedness can
Speaker 1: also strike after a meal or a sugary snack, which
Speaker 1: can send your body into what's called rest and digest mode.
Speaker 1: This is an automatic function of your nervous system that
Speaker 1: diverts blood flow and energy to your digestive track to
Speaker 1: help you digest the food you just ate so it
Speaker 1: drops your blood pressure. It can help to eat smaller
Speaker 1: and more frequent meals and to limit the amount of
Speaker 1: sugar and simple carbohydrates like white bread, white rice, and
Speaker 1: skinless potatoes that you consume at any given setting. If
Speaker 1: you experience the dizziness of orthostatic hypotension, often try moving
Speaker 1: slower when you transition between positions or from stillness into motion,
Speaker 1: and try to keep moving a bit more, avoiding sitting
Speaker 1: or standing in one place for very long. But let's
Speaker 1: note here that there is a difference between a slight
Speaker 1: sense of dizziness and a major case of the spins.
Speaker 1: If you feel like the room is spinning even once
Speaker 1: you've stayed stationary for a moment, you might have an
Speaker 1: inner ear issue called vertigo. And nearly forty percent of
Speaker 1: American adults experience vertigo at least once over the course
Speaker 1: of their life, and it can be a big deal,
Speaker 1: So consult a medical professional right away if you suspect
Speaker 1: that this is what you're experiencing. The bottom line is
Speaker 1: that the occasional about of dizziness is probably nothing to
Speaker 1: worry about. But if you're experiencing something more severe than
Speaker 1: a slight sensation, or you're feeling lightheaded when you're just sitting,
Speaker 1: make an appointment with the healthcare providers. They can assess
Speaker 1: any more serious issues. Let's end on some quick numbers here.
Speaker 1: The average heart rate is seventy two beats per minute.
Speaker 1: That means that in the course of one day it
Speaker 1: beats over one hundred thousand times. In one year, the
Speaker 1: heart beats almost thirty eight million times, and if you
Speaker 1: reach the age of seventy you've experienced some two point
Speaker 1: five billion heartbeats. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: ever stand Up and Get Dizzy on HowStuffWorks dot com
Speaker 1: written by Michelle Constantinovsky. Brain Stuff is ret of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.