make yourself faint?

Question

first of all im a Filipina so im having a hard time speaking english. so please bare with me. tnx.
well.. heres my story. me and my friends did this in school. 1 person will have to sit and then breath deeply for 15 times. for the 15th time, that person must not breath out. then he/she must stand up back to back with a wall then someone will give a very hard pressure to his/her heart. then after a few seconds that person will faint. then all of those who are watching will slap or hit him/her hard so that he/she will be awaken. luckily, all of us who did that is still alive but we all got a headache. :) so heres my question.. is it possible for a person who fainted in that kind of situation die? and is it bad for our health?

Answer 1

Your english is just fine. I'll take a stab at your question. While I am not a Dr. I do have extensive medical training ,education, and experience as a Certified Emergency Medical Tech and Licensed Vocational Nurse.
Most people probably could withstand the type of stress you described provided they are healthy. However, you should avoid striking the chest cavity(the heart) with any force. Or for that matter any part of your body. But for this discussion, I'LL just compare the consequences when CPR is administered to a patient in cardiac arrest. It is not unusual for the person rendering cpr to fracture the patients ribs or sternum. Especially if it is an elderly person with brittle bones. The consequences of fractured ribs aside fromthe obvious pain, is the risk of puncture to the lungs and or heart or other vital organs including severing of large vessels any of which in themselves can be fatal. Of course if someone is in cardiac arrest, they will most certainly die without cpr and advanced cardiac life support measures. Therefore, the procedure is performed as skillfully as possible to avoid possible further injuries but without concern of the risks as the patient has nothing to loose.
I would advise against the practice because many people suffer from heart and lung or other disorders but may not be aware of it until they are exposed to stressors that trigger or worsen a disfunction causing symptoms to become apparent.. In those persons, such a practice could indeed be fatal. Better safe than sorry.
In my school aged years, we had a similar experiment but with out the traumatic blows. We simply inhaled and exhaled rapidly (hyperventilated) for several minutes from a crotched position.. On the last breath we inhaled as deeply as we could and held our breath at the same time lunging to our feet with our arms tightly wrapped around us. Someone else was to catch us if we actually passed out.
The most I ever experienced was mild faintness that was relieved when I crouched back down and lowered my head.
I don't understand the rationale for the hard blows to the chest or heart in the scenario you described.
Perhaps it is a lack of understanding the cause of the fainting. It has nothing to do with your heart. Your heart does not stop. It is caused entirely by holding your breath and depriving the brain of oxygen combined with the sudden postural change from sitting to standing called orthostatic hypotention. In plain english that means naturally when you stand gravity exerts a pull on your blood drawing it away from your brain. Fortunitely, our Creator endowed us with a very sophisticated and fine tuned body that quickly adapts to such stresses by constricting blood vessels forcing more blood to the vital organs and momentarily shunts the partial blood supply to other organs that do not urgently need such a rich oxygen supply to make more available for the heart and brain.
I hope this answers your questions but really wouldn't it be better not to do things if you are not educated in the physical aspects or trained to treat any reprocussions? I know cheap thrills have their good points but not all and for myself I can think of a lot better and more fun things to do. God's peace to you. Faith

Answer 2

Yes you could die, and yes it is bad for you. Think of the person you care about most dying, and how you would feel, and then go to a trusted adult and tell them what is going on.

Answer 3

arite. i have told my friends about this patricia, and they told me i was crazy. and someone, got mad cuz he told me i could die. well, I really think that we could die if we kept doing that yesterday. but we should've tried. lol when i told you not to wake me up when i fainted you shouldn't have waken me up at all. and last night, i was on the computer when i felt my head throbbing like hell. so i just decided to sleep. and here i am. still alive. DAMN.!
xxx.

Answer 4

NOT HEALTHY! VERY DANGEROUS!