Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/230373
The FAINTING MYSTERY ➺ M WHY DO PEOPLE FAINT? y workplace chair massage business took off like a rocket. My staff and I Fainting occurs when the did massages at some of the biggest blood supply to your brain is corporations in Canada—American momentarily inadequate. The loss Express, Dell, Ernst & Young, Gap, of consciousness is usually brief. IBM, Kellogg's, Levi Strauss, Nintendo, and United There are many reasons why the Way, to name a few—as well as most major Canadian brain might suddenly be deprived banks, hospitals, financial institutions, and law firms. of blood, and the physiological basis I kept waiting, with a certain level of anxiety, for behind some of these causes can someone to pass out in the chair, but four years went by be quite complex. Some medical without incident. and nonmedical reasons include: Up to that point, I trained all my practitioners • Anemia. personally to guarantee a safe and consistent • Anxiety. quality massage for each client. However, to feed • Blood loss from a wound or internal the growing demand for practitioners, I started bleeding—for example, a peptic ulcer. a professional training program in chair massage • Blood pressure issues, including in 1998, where I brought in teaching staff to those associated with pregnancy. assist me with the large groups of students. • Dehydration. A few months after we started our first program, it • Eating disorders, such as anorexia happened—somebody fainted! The incident occurred and bulimia. during an open house for the school. I was teaching the • Extreme pain. group a few techniques so they could get a sense of how • Fright or other sudden emotional chair massage worked. I passed one woman who lifted stress. her face out of the face rest and said, "It's hot in here." • Heart and circulatory problems, Then, almost immediately, her eyes rolled into the back such as abnormal heart rhythm, of her head and she began shaking. As I reached to stop heart attack, or stroke. her from falling out of the chair, I asked the woman's • Heat stroke or heat exhaustion. husband, who had been massaging her, if she was prone • Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). to seizures. It wasn't a seizure. She had simply fainted. • Prescription medicines, including The woman regained consciousness relatively antidepressants, blood pressure quickly and ended up continuing with our minimedications, and tranquilizers. workshop. She and her husband even enrolled in the • Standing in one place too long. professional training program. I had finally had my • Sudden changes in body position, first experience with someone fainting in the chair, like standing up quickly but it certainly wasn't going to be my last. In that (postural hypotension). first year of the training program, we experienced a • Toxic shock syndrome. series of fainting episodes—up to 10 occurrences! I was alarmed and baffled. How was it possible that I could go for years without having anyone faint and then suddenly have people start dropping like flies? It didn't make any sense. We had to investigate. The first I was alarmed and baffled. How was it question I asked myself was: possible that I could go for years without why do people faint? having anyone faint and then suddenly have people start dropping like flies? 60 massage & bodywork january/february 2014