August 14, 2024
Welcome to The Climb, your weekly journey with Lifecycle Sherpa, where we explore Parkinson’s Disease, its symptoms, treatments, tips, techniques, and build a supportive and knowledgeable community.
This week’s trail leads us to… Orthostatic Hypotension.
Question: What is it? Why does it happen? What can I do to manage it?
Answer: This is a significant drop is blood pressure when changing position from laying down to standing. This is experienced as lightheadedness, fatigue, headache, falls and even blackouts in more severe cases.
What is “significant”?
A drop is systolic blood pressure (the top number) of more than 20 mmhg, or diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) of more than 10 mmhg. (13)
Why does this happen?
This occurs as a result of a failure of the “baroreceptor reflex” (the short term regulator of blood pressure) and cardiac (heart) sympathetic denervation.
Tips: Here are FOUR:
1) STAY HYDRATED!!! and increase salt intake
2) Try out compression socks of abdominal binders
3) Sleep with head of the bed elevated slightly to decrease the swing in blood pressure when changing positions.
4) When changing positions, do so SLOWLY and give your body time to adjust before standing up.
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See you next week!