black outs...

[sweetpea03]

For the past few months, I have had times where my vision will go black for a few seconds and then return to normal. I have no idea why this happens and it occurs at random times. For example I walked into the kitchen today and everything went kind of blurry then to black and then blurry and back to normal. I don't faint during these spells, but do feel off balance. Any idea as to what could be going on??

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
There are many causes of dizziness, lightheadedness, passing out, blackouts etc. It is difficult to comment without examination. I am just enumerating the possible causes. You can discuss this with your doctor and get yourself examined.
Dizziness could be due to postural hypotension (blood pressure falling with change of position), internal ear problems and cervical spondylitis or compression of cervical spinal nerves. All these cause dizziness when you get up from lying down position or when you change position that results in a change in the level of your head. Cervical spondylitis and ear problems also cause dizziness on changing the position of the neck. Other causes are anemia, claustrophobia, GERD, hypoglycemia or low sugar and some endocrine problems. Endocrine problems, such as an underactive thyroid (called hypothyroidism), overactive thyroid (called hyperthyroidism), adrenal insufficiency (called Addison's disease), low blood sugar levels, and in some cases, diabetes, may lead to hypotension and hence lightheadedness and an off balance feeling.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[sandyabby]

I had an experience where I lost total sight for a few min's and the eye specialist said he'd never seen anything like it. It never happened again. I think it was stress of going though a divorce even though I didn't think I was stressed. What it could be as Ive experienced is MVP mital valve prolaspe. I may have misspelled. I had this and it caused blackouts. Just sitting up in bed slowly all went black. The value in your heart doesn't open and close like it should so it stops blood flow. There is a special ultrasound for this and med's too. If they become really bad the value is replaced by a pigs. I would have this checked out and look  it up and see if your symtoms match. The Dr said it's hard to get it to show up on the test but mine showed up very well, lucky me! I'm off the med's and doing fine now. But I'd trade it for what I have now. Gee the things we have to go though.