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    What happens during an attack of vegetative-vascular dystonia



    Vegetovascular dystonia (VVD) is a violation of the cardiovascular system. An attack of VVD is a manifestation of this disorder. With it, the harmonious work of the organs and systems of the body is disrupted: the heart and blood vessels, the autonomic system, and the respiratory system. This negatively affects the well-being of a person. In severe cases (when the symptoms are most pronounced), doctors call the attack an IRR crisis.

    VVD attack, classification and symptoms

    An attack of VVD is a sudden failure in the autonomic nervous system.

    The ANS performs important work in the body:
    • maintains body temperature;
    • keeps blood pressure normal;
    • regulates breathing;
    • supports normal metabolism;
    • contributes to the timely reaction of body systems to environmental changes (adaptation and adaptability).

    An attack of VVD leads to disruption of the autonomic nervous system, thereby dramatically reducing the quality of human life.

    Doctors do not consider vegetovascular dystonia a disease. But under certain conditions, this violation is a prerequisite for the development of dangerous diseases.

    Vegetative disorders are among the most common. In eighty percent of people, this disease is at the stage of inception. At the same time, only one third has serious indications for treatment by a neurologist. Sometimes the disease manifests itself in children and adolescents, but it reaches development by the age of twenty or forty. Males suffer from the disease three times less often.

    An attack can overtake a person only once in a lifetime. His repetitions speak of dystonia with a crisis course. According to the international classification, the VSD crisis is referred to as a panic attack. But when describing the varieties of VVD, the vegetative crisis is equated to the term "VVD attack."

    There are the following types of VVD attacks:
    1. Vagoinsular crisis is characterized by weakness, lack of oxygen (up to severe suffocation), nausea. Accompanied by a drop in blood pressure, dizziness (up to fainting). Causes heart failure.
    2. Sympathetic adrenaline crisis is characterized by pain in the head and heart. Signs: heartbeat is speeded up, fear and anxiety do not let go. Long chill, coldness in hands and feet. With this type, a person is in permanent nervous overexcitation.
    3. The vegetative-vestibular crisis appears with a sharp change in position. The person feels nauseous (up to vomiting). At the same time, this feeling is not associated with food. There are pressure drops, dizziness.
    Classifying by type of seizures, the following types are distinguished:
    1. Cardiovascular (daily pain in the heart: aching during the day and burning at night, similar to angina pectoris).
    2. Hypertensive (more often it is not felt by a person in any way, although the pressure is greatly overestimated (up to one hundred and seventy-five to ninety-five). Less often it manifests itself in the form of headaches, an increase in heartbeat, a feeling of fatigue. Unexpected overexcitation, panic, a feeling of cold are possible).
    3. Hypotensive (BP drops to 100/60).
    4. Tachycardial (heart rate is too high, electrocardiogram shows arrhythmia).
    5. Arrhythmic (signs are the same as with tachycardia).
    Next, consider what happens during an attack of VVD (common symptoms for all types):
    • increased sweating;
    • cold hands and feet;
    • impaired coordination of movements;

    • increased irritability;
    • lethargy, decreased ability to work, apathy;
    • feeling of lack of air (up to suffocation);
    • the head is spinning, it hurts;
    • nausea, urge to vomit;
    • abdominal pain, gastrointestinal disorders;
    • heart pain;
    • redness of the eyes, tears, swelling of the eyelids (typical for the first ten minutes of an attack);
    • for no reason arising fear;
    • hearing loss;
    • insomnia;
    • pressure drops;
    • paranoia.
    The period of an attack of VVD can be from several hours to several days.
    Depending on the severity of attacks, they are divided into the following:
    1. Mild (lasts up to fifteen minutes, few symptoms).
    2. Moderate (up to sixty minutes, many symptoms).
    3. Severe (lasts more than an hour, many symptoms, including tics and convulsions).

    After the end of the crisis, post-crisis asthenia is observed for a long time. It may take several days.

    Causes, prevention and relief of the first signs

    From mild and flowing without any special signs, vegetovascular dystonia, in the presence of certain prerequisites, passes into an VSD crisis.

    The causes of the pathology are as follows:

    • CNS disorders;
    • injuries received during childbirth;
    • hereditary predisposition;
    • concussions;
    • hormonal changes in the body;
    • ANS disorders due to infections;
    • osteochondrosis;
    • bad habits;
    • oncology;
    • heart disease;
    • nervous and physical overload;
    • moving to another climate zone;
    • diseases of the internal organs.
    An important reason is the fear of a recurrence of a panic attack. A person is waiting for her, gets stressed, falls into depression. This leads to the return of the crisis due to the slightest negative changes in the body or the environment.
    They can serve as:
    1. Being in an enclosed space.
    2. Stuffy or damp room.
    3. Long wait for something.
    4. Threat or expectation of physical violence.
    5. The environment in which a person is for the first time.
    To prevent the occurrence and development of the disease, it is necessary to take preventive measures:

    • do not overwork;
    • fully rest;
    • take at least eight hours of sleep at night, fall asleep no later than twenty-two hours;
    • do breathing exercises;
    • carry out physiotherapy;
    • walk more often in the fresh air;
    • lead the right way of life;
    • get rid of habits that are contrary to a healthy lifestyle;
    • limit to a minimum watching movies and programs that irritate the psyche;
    • avoid stressful situations.

    If an attack still overtakes, you need to know how to deal with it. The main thing is to stop the first symptoms.

    To do this (regardless of where the crisis found: at home or on the street), you need to:
    1. Lie down or at least sit down (raise your legs slightly).
    2. Calm down (if necessary, take a mild sedative).
    3. In case of chills, take a warm cover or make a warm foot bath.
    4. Control your mental state.
    5. Regulate breathing (breathe deeply).
    6. Drink water in small sips.
    7. If you feel weak, sweets will help.
    8. When suffocating, open doors and windows, get rid of tight clothing.
    9. Take medications (if previously prescribed by a doctor).
    10. With pain in the head, get rid of irritants (light, noise).
    11. Self-massage of the little finger, the back of the head.

    It helps to relax reading poems, chants, solving simple problems from memory.

    To avoid a recurrence of an attack, you may have to completely reconsider and radically change your lifestyle. Getting rid of addictions, getting involved in physical education and sports, and, if necessary, changing the diet is a reliable way to get rid of the disease.

    Treatment traditional and folk remedies

    When signs of illness appear, it is recommended to go to an appointment with a neurologist or psychotherapist. The doctor will conduct a series of studies, a survey of the patient. Based on this, it will establish whether endocrine, somatic or psycho-emotional pathologies are present.

    Also, the specialist must exclude epilepsy, brain oncology, ischemia and asthma. The list of exceptions includes schizophrenia and nervous disorders. Only then is a diagnosis made and treatment prescribed. When choosing a treatment, the duration of the attack and its symptoms, the reasons that caused it, are taken into account.
    Treatment is prescribed:
    • medication (medicines, dosage and regimen are prescribed by a doctor, the choice depends on the symptoms);
    • non-drug (the doctor gives recommendations on self-control of well-being).

    Drug treatment is the use of herbal sedatives, heart medicines and for the activity and normalization of blood circulation in the brain. In severe forms - antidepressants and tranquilizers. Without a doctor's prescription, taking all types of tablets and injections is prohibited!

    Non-drug therapies include:

    1. Changing the diet (fried, salty and fatty foods are replaced with cereals, fruits and vegetables, meat and fish cooked in a double boiler).
    2. Physiotherapy.
    3. Morning exercises and physical education.
    4. Relaxing massage.
    5. Breathing exercises.
    6. Exclusion of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes.
    7. Treatment at a resort or sanatorium.
    8. Compliance with the daily routine.
    9. Avoid physical and emotional overload.
    10. Avoid overheating in the sun.
    11. Do not allow a sharp change in climate (do not move to another area without special need).
    12. Self-control over the psycho-emotional state (relaxation).
    13. Self-massage of the occipital zone and collar area.
    14. Drinking at least one and a half liters of water.
    15. Leading the right lifestyle.
    With non-drug treatment, first of all, you need to learn:
    • breathe correctly and deeply with the stomach (for a sufficient supply of oxygen to the organs);
    • saturate the brain with carbon dioxide (inhale and exhale into a paper bag);
    • get rid of the fear of the next attack.
    To prevent an attack, it is often enough to change the location. Self-control is an important condition for reducing the likelihood of a new attack.

    Non-traditional (folk) methods of treatment

    For the treatment of VSD attacks, recipes from traditional medicine are widely used.

    They are easy to prepare and have a positive effect on the body:
    1. Melissa tincture perfectly soothes: pour six grams of grass into a brewing container, add about six hundred grams of boiling water, close well, wrap in a thick cloth. Filter after cooling. Eat three to four times a hundred grams during the day. After three months - a break for seven days.
    2. In equal parts, mix chamomile and motherwort, valerian and lespedeza, mint and lemon balm, peony. Place nine grams in a container for infusion, pour in boiled water (one third of a liter jar), close tightly. Wait about six to eight hours. Pass through a four-layer gauze. Drink warm, five tablespoons three times a day. Store refrigerated for up to three days. Then prepare a new tincture.
    3. Mix one hundred grams of mustard powder with heated water until the consistency of gruel. Pour into a bath with forty-degree water. Take a bath for seven minutes. Wrap yourself in a blanket and sleep. Relieves pain in the head, normalizes sleep.
    4. For pain in the head, place pieces of beets in the temple area.
    5. Squeeze juice from beets, carrots and cucumbers. Mix in a ratio of one to three to one. Enough two hundred milliliters a day for the prevention of VVD.
    6. Mix eight to ten grams of St. John's wort and lemon balm. Pour into a five-hundred-gram container for infusion. Pour freshly boiled water around the edge. Clog. Leave overnight. Filter in the morning. Eat twice a day for one hundred grams.
    7. Twenty grams of hawthorn berries are placed in a container for infusion. Pour in two hundred and fifty grams of freshly boiled water. Plug and wait four hours. Filter. Drink thirty minutes before meals three times a day.
    8. Grind motherwort, take five grams. Place in a container for infusion and pour freshly boiled water (two hundred and fifty grams). Filter after two hours. Drink forty grams three times a day.
    9. Pour three large dried hibiscus flowers into a brewing container with five hundred milliliters of freshly boiled water. After ten minutes, the drink is ready. You can add sugar or honey.
    10. Mix equal proportions of valerian roots, cumin, motherwort, dill and calendula. Take a small spoon, pour into a container. Pour in one hundred and fifty milliliters of boiled water. Cork, wait two hours and filter. Drink for a month, fifteen milliliters five times a day.
    VVD attacks are not as dangerous as patients' fear of them. Therefore, when a crisis occurs, one should not panic, so as not to cause a breakdown of the nervous system. You need to "listen" to your body and understand what measures will help in eliminating the attack.

    It should not be forgotten that in the treatment of this disease, one still cannot do without qualified help. Improper self-medication often leads to complications. Treatment is delayed and becomes ineffective.

    Article author: Kristina Borisova
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