Shutdown after Extreme Cardio

[Randy1122]

I will preface by saying I am 21 years old, have no prior medical problems, and ate and drank well before working out. After my typical workout, I decided to end on a 1/4 mile sprint. After the sprint, I immediately started feeling dizzy and lightheaded. This has happened to me before after extreme cardio. So I was not too worried about that, but after about 3-5 minutes of being mildly dizzy it started to really ramp up, my vision started dimming and getting fuzzy so I decided to go sit on a bench outside. Once I sat down, the dizziness and nausea became very extreme and kept worsening. After sitting for about 2 minutes, everything started increasing in brightness, to a point where I could not even look at the rocks because they were completely white and too bright. The same happened with the environment like the sky, trees, etc. Basically, everything was too bright to look at. By this point, I could not talk, move, see, or think really. After staying this way for about 2-3 minutes it started ramping down generally fast and everything went to normal brightness. I was left with a pretty extreme headache and I was still very dizzy and nauseous. I am looking for answers on what happened, as the whole experience was pretty frightening and was not looking good for a minute.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Even though you are 21 and think yourself in good health, these are potentially very serious symptoms. They are not characteristic of extreme exercise in a normal young person. If you have a personal physician I suggest you make an appointment to go in and discuss. If you came to me (an ophthalmologist) because of the visual problems and had a normal eye exam, I would direct you to consult with a neurologist ASAP.  If that happens again with/without exercise I suggest you call 911. Do not ignore this episode.

[Randy1122]

I should also add that since the event I have had a constant stuffy nose and have been sneezing ever since. This was not happening at all before. (3 hours after currently)