Yahoo! News Story - Crossing the Legs Can Prevent Fainting Spells

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Carol Langer (carol.langer@...) has sent you a news article

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Hi gang,Many of us are already familiar with this technique, but here's some new research data to show that it really works!Carol Rob (who uses this technique when waiting in lines)

Crossing the Legs Can Prevent Fainting Spells

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020902/hl_nm/fainting_legs_dc_1

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Health - Reuters

Crossing the Legs Can Prevent Fainting Spells

Mon Sep 2, 5:28 PM ET

By Engler

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Simply crossing your legs and

squeezing them together may keep you from passing out, new

research shows.

The study, published in the September 3rd rapid access

issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart

Association (

news -

web sites), revealed that striking a pose normally used to

stave off another type of urge may prove an inexpensive

alternative to drugs or a pacemaker for people prone to

fainting.

"Muscle tensing can prevent or abort an impending vasovagal

faint, by far the most frequent cause of transient loss of

consciousness," noted lead author Dr. Wouter Wieling of the

University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands in an interview with

Reuters Health.

A vasovagal faint is brought on when the pull of gravity

causes blood to pool in the leg veins, lowering blood pressure

and causing a person to become lightheaded or faint after

standing for a long time. Emotional stress can also be a

trigger.

Wieling and his colleagues in Amsterdam and the US taught

20 adults with a history of vasovagal fainting to cross their

legs and tense their leg, abdominal and buttock muscles while

standing. The researchers then induced fainting conditions by

placing the patients on a table that can be rotated to an

upright position, and tilting it 60 degrees for 20 minutes.

Patients who failed to become dizzy were then given

nitroglycerine, which induces fainting by dilating blood

vessels, thereby lowering blood pressure. They were then tilted

for another 15 minutes.

As soon as the patients showed signs of fainting, they were

told to cross their legs and squeeze their muscles until their

symptoms had subsided for 30 seconds. If the dizziness

returned, they were instructed to resume the maneuver until it

disappeared.

The maneuver prevented loss of consciousness for 5 of the

20 patients. The remaining 15 were able to postpone a faint by

an average of 2.5 minutes.

Offering a possible explanation, Wieling stated that "leg

muscle tensing squeezes the swollen veins and thereby brings

blood back to the chest." This enables the heart to pump more

blood, which increases blood pressure and the flow of oxygen to

the brain.

The effects of such muscle tensing are comparable to those

of putting your head between your knees, he added.

In follow-up telephone interviews with the study

participants about 1 year later, the researchers found that 13

of the patients used the leg-crossing maneuver in their daily

lives to prevent or control dizziness and fainting. Only two

had fainted since the test.

Therefore, leg crossing and muscle tensing may be a

preferable alternative to a pacemaker for people prone to

vasovagal fainting because it is easy to perform and effective,

without any side effects, the authors conclude.

They add that by enabling people to prevent or delay loss

of consciousness, the maneuver "can increase patients' sense of

control over their symptoms and thereby improve their quality

of life."

SOURCE: Circulation 2002;106.

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