Treatment of Low Blood Pressure

If you know the cause of low blood pressure then treat the cause first to treat low blood pressure. Chronic low blood pressure can be treated with life style changes and diet management. You can easily control your blood pressure to normal limits by making following changes to your daily life style.

Use more salt. Doctors often suggest you to decrease salt intake, as sodium can increase blood pressure. But this is an advantage for people with low blood pressure. If you are patient of heart failure then consult your doctor before increasing salt in your diet.

Drink lot of fluids -- You may take 10 glasses of fluid a day. During exercise and hot weather you should take fluids rich in sodium and potassium

Take extra salt and water during illness like flue and cold. During flue you may lose lot of fluid.

Have your doctor evaluate your medicine and omit that drug that is causing too low blood pressure.

To promote blood flow have regular exercise.

If you are having postural hypotension, then be careful while standing up from lying or sitting position. Breath deeply for few minutes before standing up. Pump your ankles and feet a few times before standing up to increase circulation. For few minutes sit upright on edge of bed before standing up. Cross your thighs and legs in a scissors fashion and squeeze or put one foot on a chair and lean as far forward as possible. These maneuvers increase blood flow from your legs to heart.

Slightly elevate head of your bed while sleeping by placing bricks under the head of bed.

Avoid heavy lifting

Do not strain when you are in toilet

Don’t take prolong hot water baths, if you are having symptoms while taking bath, sit down. It is better to keep a chair in shower to help prevent injury.

If your blood pressure gets down after taking meal, then you should take small amount of frequent meals. Better to rest after taking meal. Do not take antihypertensive drugs before meal. Don't take high carbohydrate diet like potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. You may take caffeinated coffee with your meals. caffeine can increase blood pressure, as caffeine is known to cause other problems as well so take advice from your doctor before increasing caffeine in your diet. 2 cups of coffee give you 250 mg of caffeine.

You may wear elastic support stockings to cover your legs and thighs. By doing this, you restrict blood flow to legs, and most of blood retain in upper body parts thus keeping blood pressure normal.

Avoid taking alcohol when you are having low blood pressure as alcohol is also an important dehydrating factor. Drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

Increase whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean chicken and fish in your diet

Following medicines can raise blood pressure and physicians often add these drugs to their prescription

Fludrocortisone. It is a mineralocorticoid that can be used for low blood pressure cases like postural hypotension. Its mechanism of action is retention of sodium by the kidney thus retaining more fluid in body and increasing blood pressure. Sodium retention causes loss of potassium at the same time, so when you are taking this medicine it is necessary to take potassium with your diet.

Midodrine. Midodrine activates arterioles and veins receptors to produce an increase in blood pressure. If you have shy drager syndrome then this drug can be useful to treat postural hypotension.

Some other drugs like pyridostigmine, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, caffeine and erythropoietin can also increase blood pressure.

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