Injecting - Dizzyness from losing veins/poor circulation

[Junkhead23]

Recently pacman has a few times lately been lying down and got up and instantly lost his footing. You know how some people say they got up too quick and fall back down? Only thing is he hasn't particularly got up quickl o be honest.

This has never happened before and pacman is curious if this happens to anyone else and if it has something to do with poor blood flow?

It's a little bit annoying.

[SmokeNmirrors]

Is the dope any different then what swiy normally gets? Swim has never heard of this before but it doesn't sound to good. Is it just for a short period or is the whole time swiy is high?

[helene]

I'm not sure if poor circulation as a result of damage to shallow veins from injecting could cause this...

It's my understanding that the whole dizzyness/ light-headedness one experiences when getting up too fast is caused by there being too little oxygenated blood in your brain.

When you are sat down and relaxed, your pulse-rate is slower, as your brain (and other organs) aren't requiring so much oxygen. Then when you suddenly move and get up, as a result of this increased need for oxygen and need for a faster pulse rate to pump the required blood to your brain (gravity plays a role too) your brain is left with slightly too little oxygen in it. And it takes a few seconds for the oxygenated blood to reach your brain, so you feel a bit dizzy. The (main) reason people faint is because their brain is not receiving enough oxygen, their body makes them faint so that they are lying horizontally, to enable the oxygen (in their blood) to reach the brain quicker.

For you to be experiencing light-headed/ dizzy spells from poor blood oxygen flow purely as a result of hitting up, you would've had to have thoroughly damaged the vein and artery route between your lungs and your brain. And I don't think you've been hitting up in them, have you?

Of course repeated IV drug use damages the shallow veins which are used, (and puts more pressure on deeper veins) thus damaging circulation to extremities such as hands and feet, but I doubt it could have a noticable effect on blood flow to your brain.

Just make sure you stick to shallow veins, right? Cos if you start hitting up in deeper veins (for example the femoral) you're running into many different risks of blood clots etc in much deeper, more vital veins. And we've all heard of (or sadly in some cases, known) people who die as a result of bits breaking off blood clots and ending up in lungs/ heart/ brain, haven't we?

H

[piggyinthemiddle]

Its called 'postural hypotension' - low blood pressure caused by your sitting/lying down, or posture.

If you imagine your body as a column of fluid; if you've been lying down for a while, then the column is horizontal - with the fluid pressure pretty much equal from head to toe. But when you stand up too quickly the fluid column becomes instantly vertical. That causes the fluid pressure to increase at the bottom ( your feet) and fall dramatically at the top (your head).

Its unlikely that vein damage would cause this to happen in the first place, although it may mean that it takes a little longer for your body to recover, as your body has to squeeze blood back up to your head by constricting the lower body vessels.

I hope this alleviates your concerns, however if it persists see your GP.

Incidentally, your retinas are very sensitive to changes in pressure, ( just try pressing gently on your eyes in a dark room, to see all sorts of weird and wonderful light shows) which is why you sometimes see stars when this happens.

Reputation Comments on this post:

sound information and advice all around

[Junkhead23]

It doesn't just happen when pacman is high it happens all the time of late. He just assumed the injecting had something to do with it because it never used to happen to him at all and it's a little unnerving sometimes.

He hasn't gone into any deep veins as of yet.