Knockout - How Does it Work

A knock out can be caused by stimulate the vegas nerve through the baroreceptors in the carotid artery (artery in the neck). Which lies along the angle of the jaw. This Is a key place to hit some one in mma, boxing, etc to achieve a knockout. In fact when a person goes into a heart arrhythmia known as SVT. Which is more common lately because of people combining energy drinks with alcohol. A carotid massage can be used to reverse it by decreasing the heart rate, blood pressure, etc. an easier understanding would be if you increase the pressure in the carotid artery (artery in the neck) by hitting it. the body would try to fix the increase in pressure by dropping blood pressure, decreasing heart rate, etc. and most importantly when there is a sudden drop in blood pressure because the body tried to decrease the blood pressure in the neck, the body will try to save the brain by shutting down certain functions to reserve the most important ones. This is what leads to a knock out.

Some people might disagree, so here is my proof. When I was a kid me and my friends would knock each other out by having one of us stand against a wall and the others pushing against him, mainly against his chest area. we would do this for about 60 seconds and then stop pushing, at which point he would pass out. I know. We were stupid kids. How did this work? well when we pushed against him, his blood pressure would be increased because of the added pressure from the pushing. When we suddenly released there would be a sudden drop in blood pressure and the brain would shut down its less vital parts for survival thus leading to a knock out.

Another understanding of this would be if you jumped up quickly from sitting. The blood due to gravity will be pulled down in turn the pressure of blood in the neck/brain area would be decreased which leads to a faint feeling and in some cases people pass out.

There are other types of knockouts that aren't related to a vegas stimulation. This is where blunt impact to the head such as being punched, causes a knock out. The head gets hit, which raises ICP(pressure in the head). The body try's to save vital parts of the brain and shuts down less vital parts,leading to a knock out.
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