OOO… great question for the docs out there reading this!

Thanks for sharing your story, Whitt. AND for your lessons, LOL.

Hello, I’m sorry but I didn’t take the time to read all the comment entries here. so not sure if anyone else had the same thought. It is my understanding that Epson salt (which is Magnesium) can lower blood pressure. I would imagine if you mix “very hot” bath water, which opens up your poors, mixed with the epson salt you probably caused your BP to drop suddenly. Just a thought!

This whole story is making a mountain out of a mole hill.

When you have a hot bath, and suddenly get up, you can become very dizzy, and pass out. All you have to do is let the bath cool down, or let the water out first, or some cold water in, or just sit down again when you feel dizzy.

No mystery.

A similar thing happened to me last year. I had just finished stressing out over undergraduate finals and graduate school entry exams so I decided to drive home during the school break. While taking a hot shower (which I LOVE), I began to feel super light headed and decided to add a little more cold water. Of course, that didn’t help at all so I got out of the shower…that’s the last thing I remember. I woke up on the floor with blood EVERYWHERE. Apparently, in the process of leaving the bathroom, I fell forward and hit my head on the corner of the bathroom door (resulting in the corner splitting my forehead open). Luckily, I was able to crawl to the living room before passing out again. My granny called 911 and after a trip to the hospital and stitches, everything was okay. Luckily, the door gave me a nice clean cut so my scar isn’t all jagged and ugly. But overall, the experience was pretty scary. I was told that stress, dehydration, and super hot water is a bad mix. My blood pressure dropped really low causing me to pass out. Moral of the story: school sucks and take cooler showers.

Please don’t think there is only a slight chance of this happening again! This happened to me today for probably about the fifth time in a year. Today I knew I was going to pass out because of recent experiences, and I was trying to quickly eat something to see if it would keep me from passing out but I ended up dropping the bowl of cereal on my table I think. I managed to sit down (I’ve passed out from both standing and sitting positions- once I fell out of the chair) and I woke up to my face bashing off the bowl. I had heard my phone go off right before I passed out and when I woke up it was like ten minutes later so I was out much longer this time than I have been before. I don’t have any health problems, my blood pressure is really good.. I don’t know. But it can definitely happen again. My eyes start to see black and my ears start ringing right before it happens to me.

Hi Dennis, thanks so much for contributing your expert advice on this subject! Everything you mentioned makes perfect sense and we appreciate your tips for healthier bath-time fun!

hi ya, just to let ya all know, ive always preffered a bath to a shower, and its ironic because cold and hot baths have different benefits, apart from the obvious like cleaning out your pours, (hot water vapours good for your respiratory system) and its good at flushing out a cold, anyhoe the reason why people faint sometime, and it can effect the most healthiest of people, this is because you raise your body temperature and blood pressure very quickly in the hot bath and as you get out it starts to drop rapidly (all of your dilated blood vessel contract very quickly), sometimes to fast for your body to cope so it send it into shock, thats why you get that light headed feeling, blurred vision and fainting (just like a head rush), you should take your time so your body can adjust to the change in blood pressure, this should prevent this from happening

Hi everyone, I stumbled across this as I was looking for some tips on health benefits of different bath ingredients like dead sea salt etc. In any case, I just wanted to add something to the discussion that I feel was not being addressed enough. First, I am not a doctor or an expert on these matters. Most of what I say here is based on my personal experience, common sense, and my comparisons between taking hot baths and my active athletic life.

I have been an active runner for most of my life. My stamina has varied over the years, but I have always been in pretty good shape. I am thus used to listening to my body when it comes to physical exertion and how to get ones body from point a to b in terms of endurance and physical health. I only started taking hot baths about a year ago, but I was immediately struck by how similar a hot bath is to a cardio workout like running and how it is incredibly important to use the same prudence and process to build up stamina and prevent injury. This may seem obvious, but I feel from reading these posts that it may be helpful for me to focus on this and really make a comparison here. When you take a bath raised to a temperature to induce a sweat your body is not really relaxing. It is hard at work. Circulation is up immensely, your heartbeat goes up and can vary greatly, you are transpiring a lot and loosing fluids, you are exposing yourself to high temperatures at which heat strokes are also possible. Think of it this way, while you feel relaxed your body in some ways is actually running down a street at high velocity doing some real hard work! This is not a problem, but just as you wouldn’t be able to keep on running for hours without paying attention to your condition, you also can’t take a hot bath without paying attention to your body state. So, here are a couple of points I find useful to make sure you get a healthy experience out of taking a hot bath: (again, this may not be suitable for everyone with certain conditions and health states!)
1. Keep an eye on a clock or set a timer/alarm. I know its not exactly relaxing to keep looking at a clock while taking a bath, but you should really time yourself just as you do in the gym. If you know you can go for 30 min at a certain temperature, set an alarm that tells you its time to take a break from hot water running!
2. Keep an eye on your pulse. You don’t necessarily need to calculate your heart rate, but make sure you check your pulse now and then to see how your body is working. I have found over the years that I don’t even need a stopwatch to figure out if my heart rate is substantially beyond rest rate. If you become familiar with your own heart rate while resting and what it is like when you are in a hot bath you’ll know immediately if you ever work “too hard”.
3. Don’t keep adding hot water forever. Google “boiling frog” and you know what I mean Its very easy to increase your body beyond safe limits this way. if you want to keep it at temperature, invest in a thermometer that can help you manage that.
4. Keep a drink next to your bath. Just like we do when we go to the gym, keep a gatorade or electrolyte enhanced drink ready and periodically take a sip. This way you are replenishing your body as you go and it will be able to last longer. When you do ever feel you start fainting, it can also safe you! A high glucose drink like Cola is a good emergency drink too.
5. Have a book or magazine ready. If you read a book in bath and you feel you can’t comprehend or can’t focus on the words anymore, you’re body is overexerting itself. This you can only do for a short period of time! it’s a clue to take a break or really watch that clock.
6. Don’t take a hot bath if you don’t feel in physical condition to take a run, bike, etc either! (e.g. if you are sick, dehydrathed, etc you should don’t go out running, co wait until you are better to take a bath)
7. Build it up! Just like you don’t start out running for 2 hours straight when first hitting the gym, you need to really keep to the minimum times when first starting to take baths. listen to your body and only gradually increase to safe levels.
Ok, that’s all I can think of. Just wanted to share this with all you bubbly soaked hot bath folks out there

Stay healthy!

Hi Gary, thanks for sharing your story. I’m really not sure about how to answer your question, I think it’s best to visit your doc for this.