The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1943-05-04

his column.
days ladies tainted when anybody
made an indecent-or a decent
proposal to them, when they had
bad news from the front, when
they were laced too tightly or
when a gentleman used big, big
D. in their presence. The ladies
are tougher now.
Brains Lack of Blood
Still, fainting seldom indicates
any very serious disease. In every
case II is due, | believe, TO a with
drswal of circulation from the
brain. The, blood vessels of the
brain are constantly changing
their caliber and under nervous
stress they may go into spasm so
that no blood is able TO circulate
through them and reach the brain
structure. Thus any emotion in a
susceptible subject can produce a
brain without blood. 1t takes a
somewhat severe emotion to pro-
duce it in a modern, unlike Sir
Walters young ladies. 4
Fear is an emotion strong
enough to cause fainting; pains
any unusual eXertion, or fatigue
will deprive the brain of blood.
During the time when | was a
life insurance examiner, ! had two
experiences which have confirmed
my belief that fainting is due to
withdrawal of blood from the
brain.
The first occurred when I was
examining a healthy young appli-
cant who was standing at my side
while / counted his pulse. Ny
fingers were on his wrist and my
eyes were on the watch, so could
not see his face. | had counted
about a half a minute when t..
pulse suddenly stopped. 1t had
been large, rapid, bounding
pulse. The transition was so sud-
den that thought the artery had
rolled from under my finger. But
just then l felt a tug from the
young mans arm and looked up
Just in time to see that he was
deathly pale, and had to put him
down on the floor where he quick
ly revived.
Another Experience
The second experience was SIM
liar, except that | was taking the
blood pressure. Again the subject
was a perfectly healthy, robust
man. He was seated at the side
of the table with blood pressure
cuff in place. Again my eyes were
occupied by looking at the blood
pressure apparatus, so | did not
see the condition Of the applicant.
What | did notice. however. was
that the systolic blood pressure
could not be found. The mercury
column went down and down, al
most to zero, when my observa-
tons were interrupted by the pa
tient topping over on the desk.
Again, he revived promptly.
Here we have two natural eX-
periments, showing in the one case
that the pulse entirely stops at the
moment Of fainting and in the Sec
ond case that the blood pressure
falls to level so low that it means
no blood can be pumped to the
brain.
Some Serious Cases
Although 90 per cent of cases in
people under 80 are not serious,
there are a few conditions which
cause fainting and are serious.
One of these is a form Of heart
trouble called heart block in which
the heart becomes very slow-so
slow that there are moments when
there is no blood in the brain, so
fainting results. Hardening Of the
arteries in the brain will also lead
10 fainting attacks.
Onlookers and worried relatives
observing a person who has tainted
should remember that very fire.
quently at the end Of faint there
is a slight, generalized convulsion;
also that it is regular thing for
breathing to stop entirely during
a period Of fainting.