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Why Does Stooping And Bending Make You Feel Sick?


comfortzone

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Hi everyone! Okay if you are going about house chores or are at work - and your tasks have you bend forward from the waist -- or get semi-crouched or reaching to the floor rather frequently ....

Then you suddenly say, "whoa I just don't feel good today" .... and try to think ?why am I having a tough time of it today -- suddenly you think, "you know, it seems like when I pitch forward from the waist -- like to peek in a lower cupboard or pick something up that fell to the floor -- I just don't feel good - maybe it's positional?"

So is there a correlation here for anyone? Do you think it stems from a 'neck' issue because you strain your neck bending and getting up again more than you realize...and maybe you have neck issues that are bothering your autonomic nervous system some how?

Or is it from squishing your stomach or abdomen in the position change forward - so you do something to the blood distribution?

It's not exactly dizziness -- but just 'I want to lay down, I don't feel well'

Any comments much appreciated... I recently moved and the packing and unpacking is beating me up!

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Guest tearose

From my experience;

When I have to stop after a stoop or bend it is because I feel fuzzy headed and perhaps see some white spots. My heart may have already responded as well and has started to speed up.

As I try to mentally revisit an episode...it feels like a lack of blood flow that brings it on. In me, I feel it can be from sudden/extreme changes in position of legs or arms, not just bending. I do have slight C4, C5 changes but I think it is age and hang-gliding accident related.

I think what you describe is all our early warning system to help us restore proper blood flow and avoid a faint. It is NOT dizzyness, it is the phase before like tiredness, as you describe. I find that several minutes in a recliner, to get my feet up and body horizontal will help reenergize me.

You were probably so focused on the packing and unpacking that you didn't have a clue as to how hard your body/baroreceptors were working to compensate for all you were doing.

As can happen, afterwards you will find yourself extremely tired and should allow time to recuperate to avoid a relapse and/or flaring up of your ANS sensitivities.

feel better,

tearose

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I don't know why, but I have exactly the same problem. One of the first things I should have noticed as I was getting sicker and sicker was that my house got terribly messy, while I usually liked to keep it somewhat tidy. I have two little kids, and now I realize I wasn't able to bend over to pick up after them. I still find it really hard to bend over and back up - and you're right, it's not that it really makes me dizzy, it just makes me feel really terrible. The geneticist I just saw thought I might have brain stem compression - maybe it could have something to do with this? If you figure it out, please let me know...

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When I need to reach for something on the floor or ground outside, I never bend over at the waist, I always squat down using my legs to lower myself. I then use my legs once again to get up. This way my head in never hanging down, it's always in an upright position. I use my legs to lower and raise myself. It's a good workout and now I can squat all day long without having and dizzy spells, or getting my tummy upset. Maybe try this and see if it works for you.

Maggie

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Hey Tia - I smiled when I saw your last post - I have been picking things up with my toes for years - my kids tease me about it and say I'm like a monkey. I was thinking more about this question, and I am wondering if it doesn't have something to do with how quickly you tend to make the motion of bending over and back up. I remember reading in one article (Dr. Grubb's?) that since our circulation doesn't adapt properly to going from supine to standing position we should take time when changing positions. When I bend over to pick something up off the floor I tend to do it quickly - maybe that's why it makes me feel terrible? Just an idea, anyhow.

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Although the answer may be different for some (i.e. with chiari, etc.), generally speaking, yes this is from the redistribution of blood that occurs with these positional changes. Depending on how you are changing position and your unique circulatory abnormalities (yeah, different ones of us can have different circulatory weirdness going on ... more on that in a second...), a number of factors can come into play. Sometimes it can actually be a head rush if you bend over and have a sudden influx of blood into the head. This is possible if the arteries leading up to the head are dilated and allowing a great deal of flow in that direction (giraffes do a great job of NOT having that happen when they put their heads down to drink, as well as not letting too much blood drain away from the head when they reach their heads up to the trees to eat leaves, else they could never survive with such long necks ... maybe a better understanding of their physiology could help us someday!!). Then if you stand back up and that blood drains back away suddenly returning you to your state of hypoperfusion (reduced brain oxygenation)?BAM?symptoms.

Stooping down into a crouch is actually one of the "coutermaneuvers" against fainting because it ... well, compresses ... your body, helping to 'squish' blood up into your torso so that your heart can circulate blood to itself and your lungs and brain better. This can actually alleviate the symptoms of presyncope and avert a syncope. As some with syncope know, though, the real problem with this countermaneuver is ... once you're crunched up like that, if you try to stand back up, the blood kind of 'drains' back out to your dependent limbs and you're back where you started. It's a handy short-term solution, but I've been left more than once in a crouch going, "now what?" :P

It is actually a known way to purposely bring on a faint to perform such a crouch-then-stand properly timed concurrently with the Valsalva maneuver. Which is to say, if you're accidentally forcibly holding your breath and then releasing it, or straining somehow whilst bending down/crouching over, this can be part of the problem too ... especially since those of us with certain types of autonomic dysfunction tend to have overshoot in one phase of the Valsalva (one of the ways we can be different ... that varies depending on the type of dysautonomia).

For any who have read Dr. Julian Stewart's work on high flow/low flow/normal flow POTS, you're familiar with the idea that there can be localized abnormalities in the bloodflow of POTSies. Some who have been through comprehensive autonomic testing may recall being told they have "hyperkinetic circulation" ... some have "peripheral clampdown" (and clampdown may be more notable in those on vasoconstrictors because obviously the medication is promoting constriction) ... etc. Transcranial doppler testing in research has shown abnormalities in the cerebral artery velocity in patients with dysautonomia. I think the takehome lesson is that our blood vessels are on the wonky side when it comes to constriction and dilation!! These are essential functions that normally enable a person to rapidly change positions without experiencing symptoms ... instead, our blood may be more at the mercy of gravity, and this can make us quite symptomatic.

One other note: for those who aren't helped by slowing down position changes, those little reach grabbers are available at durable medical equipment supply stores and can be a lifesaver:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dhpc&field-keywords=reacher&x=0&y=0

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Hi everyone! Okay if you are going about house chores or are at work - and your tasks have you bend forward from the waist -- or get semi-crouched or reaching to the floor rather frequently ....

Then you suddenly say, "whoa I just don't feel good today" .... and try to think ?why am I having a tough time of it today -- suddenly you think, "you know, it seems like when I pitch forward from the waist -- like to peek in a lower cupboard or pick something up that fell to the floor -- I just don't feel good - maybe it's positional?"

So is there a correlation here for anyone? Do you think it stems from a 'neck' issue because you strain your neck bending and getting up again more than you realize...and maybe you have neck issues that are bothering your autonomic nervous system some how?

Or is it from squishing your stomach or abdomen in the position change forward - so you do something to the blood distribution?

It's not exactly dizziness -- but just 'I want to lay down, I don't feel well'

Any comments much appreciated... I recently moved and the packing and unpacking is beating me up!

After reading your post, I can relate. Everytime I am up in my attic in a bent over positing I get the fast heart rate and my bp begins to rise. I am not up there long, maybe 3 or 4 minutes, but I have noticed this happens to me everytime.

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I really struggle with this. I get dizzy from bending.... from taking yoga I think for me it sometimes has to do with the position of my head. For example sometimes I can bend over if I don't hang my head upside down.

This may sound a little silly but I had to help my husband clean out his grandmother's apartment after she died.

I kept her "reacher" thing... I don't know what it is called... but it has a trigger and extends your reach. If I can't pick something up with my feet... I use it.

Also I used to vomit (gross I know) from bending and moving around to quickly. It does help to move more slowly.

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Ok, this may sound silly, but now if I drop something small and manageable, I use my feet to pick it up!!! No, really!! Much better that way!!! But I will try squatting with back straight like Maggie and Reen said in another post. Thanks!

I always pick up things with my toes! I never understood how people can wear shoes in the house because how would you pick things up?! Interesting that this comes up now as I have been wondering recently if it is an EDS thing.

Doesn't work for cat litter, though, and that is where the squatting comes in.

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I can totally relate and thats why i never ever bend over or pick something up of the floor "unplanned". At home i allways use an office chair with rolls on and do everything whilest sitting down. At work i also make sure that i sit down + if something needs to be picked up, i wait until work is finished and iam ready to go home, that way in case it makes me feel really sick i can lay down straight away (i allways drive home with my sister). Or i ask somebody to do it for me.

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I think it's the getting back up that's the problem, not bending down. Blood rushes into the brain when we bend over, then rushes out when we stand back up too quickly. Even "regular" people can get dizzy from standing up too quickly. For us, it's harder because our blood vessels may not function properly and many of us are already lightheaded. In yoga, they teach you to stand up slowly to counter this. Also, you can squat instead of bending over, to avoid the head rush. Flop had a good (more medical) explanation of this in a prior post, which I can't seem to find now...sorry!

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Thank you everyone so much -- you've helped me gain a bit of perspective and sanity in all of this..... I always wonder if I'm the only one -- and honestly I've been bothered with this for quite a long time - but never put it in the perspective of my newish dx of hypermobility eds ... and my orthostatic 'intolerance' I guess (no pots dx).... I used to wonder if it was just because I was 'tall' - as a woman at 6 foot tall - the ground seems like such a long way down! But alas I cannot do as suggested and stoop using my legs and knees and hips - because of joint replacements and a bit of a weaker constitution and some muscle/nerve issues I guess... Still haven't figured it all out ... I smiled about using your feet to pick things up -- and I've tried that with my toes on occasion and have used 'grabbers' to pick things up before too... I never have checked my vitals -- but feel just YUCK when I do this...

Thanks again for sharing with me!

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  • 10 years later...

Wow after reading this I don’t feel alone. My husband is so helpful and understanding, but at first I was embarrassed thinking he probably thinks I’m trying get out of doing things. I would bend over to do things then get so hot, flushed and sick to my stomach. I would run and lay down and as I was laying there for a bit I would start to get a cold sweat, start yawning and my sick stomach would start to go away. Then I could get up and be fine. Crazy. Dr called it vasovagal. 

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