When a person suddenly gets up after sitting or lying down for long time, he may feel slightly dizzy. This condition is called postural hypotension. It is a mild elevated blood pressure observed when a person stands up after extended time of sitting. Some people may feel lightheaded or even faint for sometime during this episode. Postural hypotension occurs only for few seconds after standing up. Also called as orthostatic hypotension this blood pressure is not serious and does not require to be treated. But if the dizziness lasts for minutes then you need to consult your physician.
Symptoms :
Some of the common signs of postural hypotension are feeling dizzy, lightheaded or confused when a person stands up suddenly after sitting. He may have blurred vision or may feel suddenly weak, and sometimes he may faint. There will be slight confusion of thoughts for some minutes and on rare cases there can be nausea followed by vomiting. It is not a matter of concern when you get these symptoms only for few seconds. It is quite common for many adults to experience such symptoms after sitting for a lecture or after listening to concert or after prayer hours in the church.
Causes :
Postural hypotension can be caused due to diabetes and more particularly due to peripheral neuropathy. There is loss of sensation for few seconds or minutes due to lack of blood supply to the nerve. This is largely seen on aged people when they try to get up from the bed after hours of sleep. This condition is also observed on people with Parkinson’s disease and anemia.
This process can be explained as follows. As one gets up there will be increased flow of blood to the legs. This would automatically decrease the blood circulation in the heart. There are special cells in the heart for sensing the blood pressure and these cells become alert due to fall in blood pressure. This in turn will trigger more of blood to the heart giving rise to increased blood pressure.