Bed Tilt

[Jacquie802]

How does tilting the top part of your bed help with the POTS symptoms?? Wouldnt that move the blood away from your brain etc?

[Guest Finrussak]

Hi Jacquie

I posted on your past post that the positioning of your head being raised provokes a mechanism that increases blood volume...Like what is supposed to happen when you stand, the body knows what to do to make sure that blood gets to the brain. By setting off this mechanism the theory is that blood volume INCREASES and therefore less brain drain and fatigue and maybe less tachy episodes as well. Even though our bodies dont do a great job of this when we stand, it will however still try to and by being lying down/reclining the slight increases are enough.You can look up Dr Low and Dr Robertson on this topic via PubMed.

[Evie]

Jacquie finette explained it quite well. She understands the mechanisms better than i do. My dr just said something about the head needing to be higher than the splien (i think its the splien) to try to reset autonomic system so it could handle standing. As aparantly our bodies come to find laying down normal and dont cope with standing. So if we get the body to be use to a more upright position while laying down its less of a shock on our body when standing so it can adjust much more easily.

[steph37822]

oops

[Jacquie802]

my bp is very low at night esp. because that is when i take my beta blockers.

[Evie]

My bp was very low in the morning (from about 3am -11am) and it still helped me alot. It stoped me fainting on the loo if i went to the toilet in the night. Ask your dr about it to see if they think it would make your better or worse.

[Gena]

My BP is low at night too. And tilting upward a bit really helps me for the most part. I've now started elevating my legs a little too and that seems to help as well. If I lie flat on my back I often get a lot of bradycardia and weird rhythms.

[momofpreciousboy]

[Are you supposed to take the beta blocker at night? I thought it was important to take them in the moring so that they do not lower your bp at night. Jennifer TX

[Ernie]

Hi,

I take my BB 24-hours a day.

[lthomas521]

I haven't seen plenty of recommendations to raise the head of the bed, but I haven't seen any data to support it. Some people say that it gives you orthostatic "exercise," and therefore improves your orthostatic tolerance. Other people say that it decreases blood flow through the kidneys and therefore decreases urine output, thus raising your blood volume. Others say that it is really beneficial only for people who have supine hypertension (i.e., their blood pressure becomes abnormally high when they lie down). I've tried it, but it didn't seem to do any good.

[Jacquie802]

Hi, my cardiologist actually told me to take the BB at night since I get dizzy from them. Sometimes i forget to take them at night and wake up with racing heart so i take it then. Lately i have been tryin not to take it so late at night. Its Toprol XL which is sustained release so does it really matter when I take it if its constantly in my body??? Oh also i take the Toprol XL and i have a script for metoprolol which is the same thing except it isnt time released. my cardiologist told me to take metoprolol when i get the tachy bouts cuz that will work faster, im concerned about my bp becoming even lower since i will be takin a higher dose while im on both. Has anyone gotten this info before? He said i could also just switch to metoprolol two times a day but the prob with that is when im like an hour or two late takin my torprol my heart rate jumps, so i dont kow if metoprolol would benefit me the whole day...hmmm any opiinions,etc are welcome! thanks guys!