Tilt training effectively prevents fainting, according to research presented today at EHRA 2019, a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress.
Tilt training effectively prevents fainting, according to research presented today at EHRA 2019, a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress. The programme also improved quality of life, reduced the worry and fear about future fainting and enabled patients to return to work.
“Our study included teachers who fainted in the classroom and had to quit work,” said study author Dr Sergio Laranjo, of the Hospital Santa Marta, Lisbon, Portugal. “None of the conventional treatments had helped, but after tilt training they stopped fainting and were able to resume their jobs.”
Syncope affects one in two people during their lifetime and is one of the leading emergency care conditions. For some with recurrent episodes it is life-limiting – they end up in emergency or admitted to hospital, and fear stops them working and socialising. Fainting is caused by either a fall in blood pressure and/or number of heart beats. The most common triggers are standing in a hot, crowded space or sitting up too quickly. Some patients have no warning signs, and medications or devices do not help.
A tilt training programme was designed to retrain the autonomic nervous system (which controls heart rate and blood pressure) to respond correctly to moving to an upright position.
Read more at European Society of Cardiology
