Orthostatic hypotension Puns

At my weigh in today apparently I'm slightly orthostatic. I don't drink much water do that's likely it. Also not eating there much now. Does anyone know how to fix this? I've never been orthostatic even when I was drinking less watery so maybe it's restriction? It only started during the summer, so maybes the heat isn't helping? Anyone have advice?

Can anyone else relate?

I want to measure whether or not I'm at an adequate dose using Gillman's method of monitoring blood pressure drop upon standing. However, I don't know if that's possible for people who experience paradoxical hypertension.

Does any have any insight?

I think everybody knows the feeling of getting up really fast and then feeling dizzy. Sometimes (rarely tho) I get that, but to the extreme. I need to get down on all fours or sit down and my body shakes uncontrollably. My vision gets blurred and I can't identify what's around me properly. Sounds get really weird and sometimes I even get auditory hallucinations. Does anybody else get these? It isn't that bad tho, I kinda find it interesting when it happens. It only lasts for a short duration of a few seconds although it feels a lot longer in the moment.

I feel dizzy and lightheaded when I stand up - and I often collapse. After sitting down or lying down for any period of time, if I stand up I often feel extremely nauseous, dizzy, lightheaded, and weak in my legs, which often leads to me falling over and collapsing. I rarely black out completely, but I occasionally fall half-unconscious.

I have been to the doctor about this. I got blood tests - and have mild iron deficiency. I don't think this is the cause of it. I have a close friend who has the same symptoms as I do, but she is severely iron deficient.

I also have had a blood pressure test - which came back normal. It may be because it only happens when I stand up, but they said that blood pressure isn't the reason for it.

I do think it's Orthostatic Hypotension - the symptoms line up and make sense with the standing up and dizziness. But my blood pressure results were normal.

How can I get it properly diagnosed when it previously didn't work? I am fairly sure that this is Orthostatic Hypotension - can anyone clarify this?

Thank you!

Weight 55kg Sex Male Height 5'5

Hello, in the winter of 2019. I did a prolonged water fast which was is eating nothing besides drinking water.

That was a mistake.

Since then I have felt off, I always feel cold and tired + more --- I've read that orthostatic hypotension could happen during these fast

I've already have blood test/electrolytes but no dice.

Is there a way I can purchase a booking test for potential orthostatic hypotensio

He tried to explain the difference to me but im still learning. He said the treatment is similar to pots. My cardiologist said he thought i may have pots but didn’t feel informed enough to treat me, so he referred me to the electrophysiologist, who said i actually have orthostatic hypotension instead. I have now been prescribed compression stockings, recumbent bicycle,or swimming exercise, extra salt intake and electrolytes.

I was told that if that wasn’t enough, we might try a medication that makes the kidneys absorb more salt.

Wish me luck with texas summer heat and compression stockings

Am i in the wrong sub now? How different is this from pots? Or are we all just vertically challenged in different ways?

So, I feel very sad and depressed now.. because he suspected a CSF leak from the start, and today I got an email letter, he said the MRI looks normal and there's no signs of IH.. but what's going on with my symptoms is they are less positional now, I have about 4-5 tones playing in my head, about twoish years ago to get rid of my symptoms 100%, I'd take a nap for the day and wake up feeling good, and in silence. But now, it's so loud it's affecting my hearing, and any kind of head movement or sudden neck joint movement makes it kind of 'screech'..

But now these symptoms are 24/7, people say I look very pale and I feel very very tired. I've fainted some times. Everywhere in my body, it's like I am infested with bugs, you can see my muscles jerk up and down like something's under the skin. I have a weird raised lump at the base of my spine.. I am kind of at wit's end with this, and idk what to do. he didn't schedule a follow up appointment or any treatments.

I'm also getting random headaches that last less than half a minute but feel like something in my brain burst. They are extremely painful and happen behind the ears or the back portion of my head. & also shooting pains behind my eyes, tingling in my scalp and spine.

A year or so ago, I had to lie down about 2-3 hours to notice improvement in myoclonus and tinnitus, so it's like that delay gradually got longer?

If a doc can give advice that’s great but just a general question/seek for advice. I wasn’t sure where else to post this in all honesty.

31M here. My doctor has told me I have orthostatic hypotension and has told me I need to be adding a teaspoon of salt into my diet each day. Since I’ve been doing this for the last couple months I’ve been relatively symptom free.

I have just been stirring a teaspoon into a pint of squash and necking it each morning and it isn’t the most pleasant experience. I started doing this as adding it my meals I was just not getting enough without destroying my meals.

Does anyone else have to add salt to their diet and could recommend something different to make it easier to stomach? Maybe a certain flavour of squash which masks the taste better? I’ve tried also adding sugar into the drink but trying to stay away from too much sugar too (personal reasons, not medical).

Thanks!

Why don't medical professionals test blood pressure while we're standing up? Why do they always say that we need to sit down? This would help catch more people who are suffering with POTS. I'm resentful about this because I wasn't caught for 10+ years. I actually still had low blood pressure readings while seated when they were taken soon after sitting, but for these medical providers, low is good in a high blood pressure society smh

I've experienced no orthostatic hypotension on parnate 50mg. I don't mind, of course, except for the suggestion by Dr. Gillman that orthostatic hypotension indicates a sufficient level of MAO-A/B is being deactivated. How many folks experienced at least minor orthostatic hypotension, and at what dose?

I took midodrine to increase it but it didn’t work. Typically, this bp doesn’t impact me but this time it has. Usually, I’m told to go to the ED for fluids, but at this time I feel other people are a priority. I’ve eaten plenty of salt and drank water with a mild increase of 90/71, then 89/71 but not feeling any better. Anyone have any advice? My electrocardiologist is not in the office today.

Symptoms: dizzy and lightheaded, trouble thinking, a bit nauseated, headache. No contact with Covid that I’m aware. Thanks!

Edit: also take florinef at night and 2.5 bystolic when I’m tachycardic. Didn’t take this morning. 36/F, 135 lbs.

Edit: thank you all! Waiting in the ER now. Really appreciate everyone. EKG NORMAL, hooked up to fluids, bloodwork. Not sure what we’re doing next. Thank you all so much. Will def be following up with my cardiologist Monday.

I posted a while back and have realized it's more likely that i have OH than POTS. My main complaint is cognitive issues--brain fog, memory, fatigue etc. Im also suffering a lot of mental health stuff which I'm now beginning to work on separately, but treating my physical issues can only help me figure out where my mental baseline lies.

I have lots of other symptoms which are annoying (i.e. painting my bathroom today and getting lightheaded EVERY time I stood up from dipping my roller) but ive learned to function around them, so I'm mostly concerned with whether my cognitive stuff can be improved. Is it worth trying to get a diagnosis (if it is indeed my issue) or should I just up my salt and water?

A Gatorade a day has been helping. Ive seen compression stockings online, and assume that these would suffice (vs. getting them prescribed). Sometimes I try to eat healthy but my normal diet is pretty crappy, and I seem to feel better that way. If I'm doing these things anyway, is there any reason to even go to the doctor?

So this is my question - pretty straightforward but the context of it is below.

—

I got sick with Covid on March 16, 2020 and have been struggling with chronic shortness of breath and corresponding chest pain/tightness ever since. It’s pretty constant every day - at rest as well as walking and it fluctuates between a level 3 - 8 of discomfort. I used to bike 10 miles a day and now I’m having difficulty walking 10 minutes at a time, etc

Three months into my sickness I started noticing POTS-like symptoms and months later it was finally diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension by my neurologist with my at home readings over a period of weeks with consistent drop of 20 to 30 blood pressure after 2 minutes of standing, and just recommended salt, compression etc. However, no one on my team thinks this orthostatic hypotension could be causing my shortness of breath and chest pain since I consistently have it at rest as well. I do get the classic coat hanger pain etc. after sitting up for a while and that definitely makes things a bit worse but I still have my baseline symptoms even at rest laying flat. I don’t have any significant issues with headaches or dizziness - the more classic symptoms, I do occasionally but it is not severe by any means.

In June 2020 I did have an abnormal, ekg, echo and PFT following acute left chest pain, But that was followed by a normal scans of the following: cardiac MRI, CT, VQ, CPET, PFT, Echo, EKG and no significant improvement from inhalers and blood work has been completely normal- So those abnormal tests in June have pretty much been thrown out. I also had an ENT check out my vocal cords but I’m not 100% convinced how thorough it was.

10 months later my team has still been trying to dial in whether my shortness of breath could be due to an elusive respiratory issue, but I’m reaching the end of my rope on that front and now wondering wondering if it could be due to a more nuanced autonomic dysfunction - But that seems odd since my symptoms feel very similar to the symptoms I had at immediate onset of my initial two weeks sickness, which was significant respiratory distress and chest pain, and I didn’t notice the heart rate and blood pressure issues until three months later. Note I also started having full body twitching after two months - I still have it but not as bad.

So I guess I am curious if anybody here has any idea of whether my orthostatic hypotension could be causing my shortness of breath even at rest or if i

I’ve been in the “maybe it’s POTS?” area for years and my symptoms have matched up pretty much perfectly. Today, my doctor told me that I have Orthostatic Hypotension.

I was a bit worried at first that it was one of those non-diagnoses where it’s just “low bp and anxiety” (still valid but not what I’m experiencing) but I just wanted to let anyone in the diagnosis process know that Orthostatic Hypotension has relatively the same symptoms as POTS (it also exists on a spectrum) and relatively the same treatments (aside from potential medication).

It’s an understudied condition and it’s likely it’s not treated quite as seriously as POTS is, though of course neither really are treated seriously enough outside of the medical world, and sometimes even within.

I just wanted to let anyone know who might be seeking a POTS diagnosis that if your doctor dismisses POTS and mentions low bp to ask them about OH. Sometimes doctors aren’t aware of it though they should be because it’s something to rule out in diagnosing POTS, but sometimes doctors won’t even tell you what it is and will simply tell you it’s low bp.

And if you are diagnosed with OH, your symptoms are just as valid. I think it helps to think of it as similar to POTS but with low bp instead of an increased heart rate.

I’m going to stay on this subreddit just because the symptoms and treatments are very similar and there isn’t really an OH community on here aside from r/dysautonomia. You’re all amazing and I wish those of you in the process of getting diagnosed or seeking diagnosis the best of luck, be it POTS or OH.

Just a note: I also experience periods of high heart rate (normally 140-150, sometimes spiking but still low end of the spectrum) and it was very back and forth with my cardiologist on whether or not I have POTS. She determined no, but POTS and OH can occur simultaneously and I don’t want to give the impression they can’t.

From my mid teens I've had trouble climbing stairs, initially manifesting as my shoulders painfully locking up as i tried to climb stairs particularly later in the day

More recently (the last 8 years, i'm 30 now) I've had a lot of trouble with Orthostatic Hypotension, grey outs, hearing disturbances or having a rush of pressure to my head when standing up too fast, lately the latter has been accompanied by uncomfortable pressure in my chest just prior to the pressure reaching my head

I also have chronic neck tension and occasional inflammation (though never any pain) When I'm stressed and tired I can have trouble staying stood up, starting as a pressure in my gut and leading to neck tension and a sensation like I'm going to faint and need to sit down (at which point the sensation settles) and pulsatile Tinnitus in one ear that comes on later in the day

However to this date I've never fainted, and though I have a hard time bending at the waist, standing from crouching and starting and stopping suddenly, I'm still able to run (though too many consecutive days of exercise causes gut pressure and makes me more prone to headrushes and gut pressure) my doctor suspects silent reflux and I've just started some medication for that.

I'm not sure my symptoms are a good fit for Dysautonomia but I've been scratching my head with some of these issues for a long time, i'm wondering if anyone else has similar symptoms and how they went about managing them.

Hey Folks,

I'm trying to follow Dr. Gillman's guide on finding the right dose via measuring orthostatic drops in BP. I'm on day 19 on Parnate and just went up to 40mg 4 days ago.

My BP sitting consistently runs 100-110/70-80 and upon standing its rare to get an orthostatic drop, even beyond a few points. Sometimes my BP increases when standing. What also remains steady is my heart rate - its elevated - high 90's to around 110.

The med is clearly lowering my pressure. The question I have is am I at a therapeutic dose based on that low BP alone, or do I still need to wait for orthostatic changes to kick in (as in a possible dose increase in a few weeks)?

Thanks!

Hi, just passing through to ask this. I used to fast frequently, up to 17 days at my best. I want to start fasting like I used to but I've developed orthostatic hypotension since then and now even when not fasting / eating moderately I'll faint or get dizzy as soon as I get up.

Any advice? I don't know what else to do besides downing straight-up salt or salt pills (both of which didn't help as much as I'd've liked.) Have I just screwed my body up so much it can't fast anymore?

60yr old female with history of gastroparesis, emphysema and kidney stones. My PCP diagnosed me with orthostatic hypotension and tachycardia by measuring bp and hr while laying down, sitting up and standing. Fast forward to now when I got up and passed out a few seconds later, hitting my head on the bathtub. I now have a cardiac loop monitor and my EP does not want to do further testing or give me medication. Shouldn't I get testing to determine the cause, type and severity? I am not sure if this is the correct forum to discuss this. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Why don't more people talk about the Orthostatic Hypotension / POTS / NMH aspect of EDS? I wondered for ages why I would get lightheaded nearly every time I stood up, and it took specifically checking if the two were related to figure out that like, eight-tenths of EDS patients have some kind of Orthostatic Intolerance. It's practically a defining characteristic of EDS at this point, but not one doctor or online resource ever told me they were related! EDS in general really needs more publicity and awareness, if for no other reason then that it's a really complicated problem and even people who have the dang thing often don't know what it is or how it works.

Hi all! I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and hypothyroidism around half a year ago. I’m on Levothyroxine and have found a dosage where my numbers are perfectly in range. However, I’ve noticed that whenever I stand up kinda quickly I become incredibly dizzy and my vision is clouded with colors. Within 30 seconds it normalizes, but it is very frightening in the moment. I spoke with my doctor: and she said it was orthostatic hypotension: extremely common and nothing to worry about. I know I just need to make more of a conscious effort to stand up slower. I was just wondering if this was a symptom of Levothyroxine that others have experienced, or if it is completely unrelated. I never used to experience this before my diagnosis and now it is practically every time I stand after sitting or laying down! Thanks all!

I have frequent episodes of orthostatic hypotension, just to be clear, my blood pressure is all right, and is about 12/8, but, I tend to sit improperly a lot, just because it is comfortable, and I love getting up extra fast, and when my vision starts going black and you feel all your body numb is just a good feeling. No I don't use drugs, and I don't pretend to, but orthostatic hypotension is just a good high.

I've heard mixed feedback from different consultants on starting patients with it, particularly the elderly. One consultant said he prefers midodrine as it has less adverse side effects but he's the only consultant i've come across with that opinion. I wanted to know what others experience with prescribing this drug was like.

Hi!

I’ve heard that orthostatic hypotension is a «common» thing to experience after amphetamine use, i.e. feeling dizzy, lightheaded or even fainting when abruptly standing up from a sitting or laying position. The reason for this is the difference in blood pressure from when you are standing up to laying or sitting down. I couldn’t find a lot of information on the topic, expect for a few case studies linked below.

If anyone has any personal experiences with this I’d really like to hear your input! Everything from how longed the condition lasted to what symptoms you experienced etc.

Sorry for the possible typos, I was writing the post in a hurry :)

Case study, UK:

https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc2722484

Case study, Australia:

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)63278-3/pdf

I’m currently on 3 Nardil (45mg) and 1 Parnate (10mg). When I took my Parnate today, about an hour later I felt dry mouth, an empty swirling or suction feeling right below my sternum in my chest, and extreme sleepiness.

Then within a couple more hours I got (still have at the time of writing this) extreme orthostatic hypotension. It’s to the point where I can’t stand up, even slowly, without blurry vision and seeing stars, feeling cranial pressure, and almost fainting every single time I try to get up.

Does the dry mouth, strange sternum feeling, and extreme sleepiness mean I have strong hypotension? And is this sternum feeling actually heart palpitations?

Anyone else experience this? I need to talk to my psychiatrist, this is insane. But I will reduce my Nardil dosage to 2 pills (30mg) today.

So, I feel very sad and depressed now.. because he suspected a CSF leak from the start, and today I got an email letter, he said the MRI looks normal and there's no signs of IH.. but what's going on with my symptoms is they are less positional now, I have about 4-5 tones playing in my head, about twoish years ago to get rid of my symptoms 100%, I'd take a nap for the day and wake up feeling good, and in silence. But now, it's so loud it's affecting my hearing, and any kind of head movement or sudden neck joint movement makes it kind of 'screech'..

But now these symptoms are 24/7, people say I look very pale and I feel very very tired. I've fainted some times. Everywhere in my body, it's like I am infested with bugs, you can see my muscles jerk up and down like something's under the skin. I have a weird raised lump at the base of my spine.. I am kind of at wit's end with this, and idk what to do. he didn't schedule a follow up appointment or any treatments.

I'm also getting random headaches that last less than half a minute but feel like something in my brain burst. They are extremely painful and happen behind the ears or the back portion of my head. & also shooting pains behind my eyes, tingling in my scalp and spine.

A year or so ago, I had to lie down about 2-3 hours to notice improvement in myoclonus and tinnitus, so it's like that delay gradually got longer?