I’ve all the time thought of myself a health-conscious particular person—with one main exception. I’ve fainted, abruptly and inexplicably, for many years. For a very long time, I didn’t look into why.

I keep in mind the primary time I handed out: I used to be doing a troublesome exercise with my cross-country workforce in school, felt woozy, and abruptly awakened on the bottom. Since then, I’ve handed out after I’ve been sick with a chilly (together with a time after I was so disoriented that a physician needed to name an ambulance to take me to the hospital), and on the subway throughout my first being pregnant. Scary as these fainting episodes have been, they have been spaced far sufficient aside that I didn’t actually put collectively that one thing may be connecting them.

Actually? I additionally didn’t need to make it a huge deal (…regardless that it was arguably already a giant deal that I used to be randomly passing out on a regular basis). I pleasure myself on having the ability to soldier via absolutely anything, and part of me nonetheless isn’t completely comfy acknowledging this aspect of my well being historical past as a result of I don’t need to appear fallible. However that very same dismissal meant I delay getting not solely solutions, however the assist I actually wanted.

I began having dizzy spells extra typically over the previous six years, which freaked my household and me out. In 2018, I had a second-trimester miscarriage with twins and fainted from blood loss, hitting my head a number of occasions after I fell. Late final 12 months, I bought sick after a pal’s marriage ceremony, broke into a chilly sweat, and began to black out—my husband needed to maintain me up in to verify I didn’t lose consciousness.

These two cases actually scared me. As a well being reporter, I noticed some parallels between what I used to be going via and customary coronary heart assault and coronary heart failure signs—like sudden lightheadedness, shortness of breath, and chilly sweats. And I’ve an advanced household historical past of coronary heart illness. My grandmother died from a coronary heart assault at 46, and a number of other of my relations have coronary heart rhythm points.

Lastly, I went to see a heart specialist just a few months in the past. I used to be uninterested in fainting spells disrupting my life, and I’ve 4 younger youngsters and a chef-husband who works late at evening—I might find yourself passing out after I’m alone with the children, or significantly injure myself. It was time to determine this out.

After doing an ultrasound of my coronary heart, my physician decided that I didn’t have coronary heart failure or coronary heart illness. Nonetheless, I used to be identified with bradycardia, which suggests my coronary heart charge is slower than 60 beats per minute, decrease than what’s thought of typical (between 60 and 100 beats per minute), in accordance with the American Coronary heart Affiliation. When my physique hasn’t absorbed sufficient salt or water, my coronary heart charge drops much more, my heart specialist defined—and that prompts the fainting.¹

I realized that bradycardia could cause weak spot, dizziness, confusion, fainting, unusually intense fatigue throughout train, and chest ache. As a aggressive athlete who continues to coach at actually excessive ranges, it’s not tremendous shocking that I’ve it. “Younger wholesome folks—significantly athletes—can have slower coronary heart charges, which generally is a results of their train coaching,” Jeffrey J. Hsu, MD, PhD, a heart specialist with UCLA Well being, tells SELF. I later realized that bradycardia could be brought on by a spread of things, together with injury to the center (typically associated to getting older), thyroid points, autoimmune ailments like lupus, and congenital coronary heart defects.