Normal Bp But Still Dizzy?

[redoctober]

I'm hoping someone can explain this to me. Lately, my tachycardia is all but gone...rising vitals in the morning are typically 120/80 with a HR around 70 after hopping out of bed. Walking around HR is in the 80/90's...and vigorous exercise (5 mi run) it tops out around 160/170. Normally, I'd be thrilled considering where I was a year ago...but I'm just as dizzy as ever despite normal vitals. I increased Lexapro a few weeks back (to 5mg)...so that could be part of it, but I'm so frustrated that my HR is down yet I still feel like crap. I've stopped the BB...and started to taper Klonopin (almost feel worse on it)...but I just can't figure out why I feel like crap when it appears that the tachy stuff is gone. I still take a micro-dose of Florinef (1/8 tab)...as I feel better on it for some reason. Oddly, my HR in the morning is lower and I'm colder if I'm not taking Florinef.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Is this just faulty ANS stuff?

[Jan]

My vitals don't reflect how I feel. I sometimes think it is the variation in vitals that makes me feel dizzy and not the individual reading. I stopped taking my BP and pulse because sometimes the readings were bad when I felt good and I would find my self questioning if I really felt well.

When my BP is really low I feel horrible, but other than that, they don't usually reflect how I am feeling.

[WyomingGal]

this is one of my main symptoms! my dizziness seems to be the worst in the morning. Sometimes I wonder if even though the midodrine bumps up my BP, it also makes me dizzy. I am on some medications that can cause dizziness, but it came on strong about a year ago. It has gotten better so very slowly. I think it's just a benign annoying symptom. I also can't go on swings anymore which is weird.

[tachyfor50years]

I do agree with you Jan, thank you for putting that fact in words!

It is 100% true, I am exactley the same.

[targs66]

I'm the same - my BP doesn't always reflect how I feel. One of my worst symptoms is unrelenting vertigo - a sort of dizzy, spacey feeling, as if I am not fully conscious. I feel like I can't "access" my brain - if someone says something to me, I'm struggling to process it. Weirdly enough, that sometimes happens when my BP is not too low - say about 98/68, which is quite high for me.

I wish someone could explain exactly what's happening when I feel like that!!

[POTLUCK]

I agree vitals do not necessarily reflect how I feel directly. I would of course consider RX influences and ask my doctor. I am also wondering about HR variation, as opposed to number. Sometimes my HR will be going up and down and this must cause problems, yet the overall number, for example on my BP cuff that averages the minute will be fine. My sports watch or pulse ox HR will show a different picture. I would consider what is the lying to standing difference in HR &/or BP especially right after I stand up and consider when does the dizziness occur, and see if there are any connections that are obvious. ( For example dizziness on standing and drop in HR that corrects )

I believe my dizzy/lighthead/brainfog symptoms may be due to volume depletion. This has not been measured so I do not know this. If the blood vessals are "squeezed" like a squeezing the water out of your garden hose to store it, and then held upright ( standing ) the only water ( blood ) runs to the bottom. This does not leave enough at the top. Like a bottle of water partly consumed, the gap at the top where your brain is when you stand.

Hope you can figure it out.

[Tuesday]

I've had the same issue. I can't explain it either, but I get just as dizzy/lightheaded when my bp is normal.

[bellgirl]

I've decided it is just the dysautonomia, because as the others have stated, it is not related to vital signs necessarily, although I can also relate to what POTLUCK is saying, too, where my heart rate will sometimes jump all over the place to finally stabilize (I have a hr monitor, too). My doctor told me that everyone with dysautonomia is hypovolemic, so when you don't have adequate blood to your brain, you will experience dizziness/lightheadedness. That was my main symptom before diagnosis. It is better than it was, but I still get motion sick in the car, can't walk on a treadmill, or spend too much time out standing either, because of it. At least I haven't had major vertigo in over a year, because I was vomiting and bedridden with that twice, before treatment!! I am now so much better, and functional....Fluids and more fluids until you almost feel water logged...lol

[Maiysa]

So glad you asked this question. I have the same thing and check my bp and it's pretty close to normal. But I've been so dizzy that I can barely make it from the couch to the kitchen without feeling drunk. So I upped my pretzel intake (salt) and am up to 2 and half liters of water that really helped a lot with the dizziness. I'm also doing a little bit of pedialyte and gatorade. I also notice if I have any kind of neck pain which is almost daily, but if it really bad, I'm very dizzy. I just wonder if the nerves are so inflamed back there that they are affecting blood flow. So if that's the case, then ibuprofen helps a bit. Boy, it's a challenge every day isn't it!

[redoctober]

To answer potluck's Q above...my lying HR this evening was 51bpm using my sports heart-rate monitor. Upon standing, it jumps up to 90bpm within 10 seconds, then settles back down to 60bpm. My standing bp was 134/83 this evening, yet the brain fog and off-balance feeling persists.

So frustrating...I can run 5+ miles and feel like this all in the same day.

[hholmes13]

I've got the same thing. My vitals usually don't reflect how I feel. I've come to be pretty much dizzy/light-headed 24/7 lately. My bp has been really normal (around 110/70 - which is higher for me) lately. My hr jumps around a little but usually things read fine and I still feel terrible. I'm wondering if it's a volume issue as well. I try to eat around 2g of sodium each day and take in 2-3 liters of fluid but I don't really notice much difference.

I definitely notice when bp is too low....that feels worse, but even with normal readings I don't necessarily feel a whole lot better.

[Monstrosity]

I'd chime in but everyone else has said it already. I'm in the same boat.

[heathmcev]

Me too! I'll feel terrible and think my BP must be low, only to take it and find out its normal. Dr Khurana, my pots neuro said he sees this in a lot of his patients. He'll see that my vitals are holding steady standing - yet see that I am weak and feel ready to collapse... He just shakes his head and says it confirms that the vitals aren't telling the whole story. Far from an answer - but it helps me to know that at least a doctor acknowledges that this is the case with us. Wish we knew more.

Dizzyde

[ramakentesh]

Peripheral blood pressure measurements do not measure cerebral vasoconstriction, or abnormalities in cerebral autoregulation that cause dizziness in pots by compromising cerebral perfusion. In pots its not about overall blood pressure. Its about abnormal blood flow, diminished return to the heart from peripheral, stomach pooling or constriction and the consequential parasympathetic withdrawal, vagal changes or other abnormalities the effect cerebral autoregulation, making the brain unprotected from beat by beat blood pressure variations .

[sue1234]

Right before I got to Rama's post, I was just coming to the conclusion that it must be something that isn't being measured, and because we "feel" it in our brain the most, then it must be something happening in the brain.

I am the same as everyone here. I can feel so lightheaded and off, and have normal vitals. I can also feel this way from just sitting also.

[ramakentesh]

I'm going to copy that answer to a word doc so I can cut and paste it for the next time that same question gets asked. Its popular.:-D

[redoctober]

So, perhaps that explains why I always feel better right after I exercise...it gets the blood moving around. Ironically, all this exercise may be worsening the problem...my resting HR is really good now (50's), and I don't get the spikes upon rising in the morning like I used to. But, I'm now dizzy all the time now that my HR is lower.

Any remedies that could help this? A micro-dose of Florinef seems to help a bit...as does Licorice tea. But I'd love to hear from others that have found remedies to this issue.

[ramakentesh]

Exercise has been shown to improve nearly all cases.

[jangle]

Just because you have normal blood pressure does not mean all your tissues are adequately perfused with circulation.

An example would be Raynaud's phenomenon. Despite having normal blood pressure the hands and feet are not adequately perfused.

Now why this happens might not be limited to just one reason. It could have to do with baroreceptor malfunctioning, NET deficiency, angiotensin ii blockade, and all kinds of things really.