Does anyone have orthostatic hypotension?

My brain fog lifted this afternoon. I have dealt with OH since 2024.
The commonest treatable cause is a prescribed medication or dehydration.
Hypertension treatments sometimes have OH as a side effect.
It is more common in aging. If you’re younger it can be neurologic in nature.
In some seniors it requires a series of tests to workup a cause and treatment.
It is often related to neuropathy called dysautonomia. There are screening
questions about your symptoms.depending on your situation after cardiac
consult you may be advised to stay well hydrated with fluids and increase salt
in your diet. I had a thorough consultation visit at Rochester with the
autonomic specialist to arrive at autoimmune inflammatory cause.
It can take time and coordination with all of your doctors in more complex
situations. Perhaps cardiology postural testing is the first step.
I take Midodrine for control on problem days. 15 minutes of balance exercises in the morning have helped with equilibrium. Learn all the measures to prevent falls. Hope you get help soon.

Yes. When I stand up too quickly. Fell down one time a long time ago in a library. I was bent over looking at dvds on a bottem shelf, and then stood up quickly. Knocked over some books. Librarian was pissed.
After that, always stand up s l o w l y.

@shmerdloff Yes I do try to remember to get up slowly but I know I do everything very quickly and I tend to forget. It’s not only getting up from a seated position, it’s walking up stairs. I have to stop in the middle to breathe and I go very slowly as well

Thanks for responding. I’ve never heard of an autonomic specialist. I’ll look into that for sure. I took a Midodrine today as my B/P was quite low, did some slow deep breathing & I hydrated. I’m pretty sure that I did too much too quickly & definitely was not hydrated. Walking up the stairs was difficult & so I went up slowly and stopped to rest when needed. It’s definitely not an easy condition to deal with. Thanks again.

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

@ryeryesun1
Maybe it's more than OH. Maybe a nuclear stress test? EKG? Echocardiogram?

I had OH for a brief period when I lost about 30 pounds in 3 months with diet and exercise. I began to get dizzy when standing up and made a doctor's appointment when I started to pass out once. We cut my blood pressure medications in half and things were fine. A small amount of regained weight and I had to raise them again. I am now losing again and am starting to experience some OH. Obviously, my weight plays a significant role in my blood pressure. BTW, I'm 75.

My husband has Orthostatic Hypotension and for years I feel as if i'm walking around behind him (often during the night) to catch him when he falls. He was started on Midodrine and takes it three times a day. It works fairly well at keeping it steady during the day but nights are a huge problem. Two nights ago when he was very weak the blood pressure monitor couldn't even read his numbers but kept saying that it was low and giving errors. Forty minutes later after almost carrying him to his recliner and getting him a midodrine to help him, the reader measured it at 40/20. He has had triple bypass but even that didn't help after fixing his heart. He will always have this according to his cardiologist and heart health team of doctors. I'm hoping that you aren't going down that road. it also started with him having to stop and rest while walking or climbing stairs. Please keep us updated and stay as steady and safe as possible at all times.

Orthostatic hypotension is a difficult condition to deal with. I only take Midodrine when my systolic B/P drops below 105 or so. I have to be very careful because due to my cardio myopathy event, I can’t consistently elevate my pressure. Thank you for your support.