Dizzy Dizzy

[porque]

Hello,

Today I saw a friend that I havent seen for a long time when I was at the park walking my dog. I stood still for about an hour chatting with her when suddenly I felt very dizzy...I quickly walked home and found to my surprise that my BP was like 140/95...I was under the impression that low BP caused dizziness...not high. (yes high BP can cause dizziness but not at those levels) Then I started thinking that maybe my BP was high cuz I wasent getting blood to the brain and the bodies response to that is to raise the HR (which is blocked by beta blockers) and squeeze veins tighter...increasing BP. Does this make sense? But if my veins are tightening then how could blood be pooling...woudnt that make your BP drop like a rock? I have never seen pooling in my legs and they never feel heavy. I'm begining to think that I have some kind of neuroraphy because I dont have much hair growth on my distal legs (lower legs) that can be a major sign of neurorapthy. I'm just very scared and confused over here. Please some validation is greaty needed over here!

Tasha

[violahen]

Hi:

Your symptoms sounds familiar to me. Don't be too surprised that your BP had gone up by the time you got home...especially since you walked home quickly and probably felt somewhat panicked over what was happening.

My guess is that you probably had a sudden drop in BP while standing....(standing in one position for a period of time can be real trouble for POTS people). That was what made you feel dizzy initially. That's the point that your heart starts to race to try to make up for the drop. However, that only makes things worse...not to mention more stressful. My guess is that during your quick walk home your body was struggling to regain stability and your brain was very stressed resulting in a quick rise in BP.

I had a very similar thing happen while in the doctor's office. I was at Dr. Grubb's office and was about to make a new appointment. I was standing at the secretary's desk. Suddenly I had a drop in BP and started to faint. They brought me back into the office and laid me down. By the time they got the bp cuff on me my heart was racing and my bp was high....not as high as yours was...but certainly high for me....mine tends to be very low 80/50. A sudden spike like that is most likely due to the combination of your own psychological stress level and your body desperately trying to recoup from it's "accident".

Good luck!

Kristen

[yogini]

I definitely get dizzy when I get high BP. Have you tried a beta blocker to hel;p with the BP issues?

[ramakentesh]

ive had major dizziness with blood pressure that was that high - when i initially had symptoms my pressure was high and i was still dizzy.

[MomtoGiuliana]

Hello porque

I have POTS and have also had those symptoms of dizziness and high bp. I don't have them anymore (or very rarely anyway). I don't know what the explanation is exactly. It could be that you had an episode of low bp--but when your autonomic system is out of whack there are so many symptoms and not all are caused by low bp or changes in bp. When you way you felt dizzy--do you mean you started to black out ,or that you had a spinning sensation, or sudden weakness? 140/95 is high but not terribly high--particularly if you took it right after walking and you were feeling anxious at all.

When my POTS was very severe, I also lost hair growth on my arms and legs. Now it has come back.

I see you have some other posts that I haven't looked at--but, have you been diagnosed and are you being treated? A low dose beta blocker would knock down that slightly elevated bp and might be helpful with some of your symptoms.

I hope you feel validated!

take care,

Katherine