If your blood pressure is consistently below 90/60 mmHg and causing symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, or lightheadedness, there are several effective ways to bring it up. The strategies range from simple daily habits like drinking more water and eating more salt to physical techniques that work in seconds when you feel faint. Which approach works best depends on why your pressure is low and whether the drops happen at specific times, like when you stand up or after meals.
A drop of just 20 mmHg in systolic pressure (the top number) can be enough to make you dizzy or faint. So even people whose resting blood pressure seems “normal” can benefit from these strategies if they experience sudden drops throughout the day.
Drink More Water, Especially Before Standing
Drinking water is one of the fastest, simplest ways to raise blood pressure. A study published in Circulation found that drinking about 16 ounces (480 mL) of water raised seated blood pressure by 11 mmHg in older adults and by a striking 43 mmHg in people with autonomic disorders. The effect was dose-dependent: 16 ounces produced a bigger rise than 8 ounces.
The mechanism isn’t just about increasing blood volume. Water triggers a rapid rise in sympathetic nervous system activity, which tightens blood vessels and pushes pressure up. This makes a glass or two of water a useful tool before activities that tend to lower your pressure, like standing up after a long rest or getting out of bed in the morning. Most guidelines for people with orthostatic conditions recommend drinking 2 to 3 liters of fluid per day to maintain adequate blood volume.
Increase Your Salt Intake
For most health conditions, doctors tell you to eat less salt. Low blood pressure is the exception. Salt helps your body hold onto water, which expands blood volume and raises pressure. The American Society of Hypertension recommends that people with orthostatic disorders consume 6,000 to 10,000 mg of salt per day (roughly 2,400 to 4,000 mg of sodium). Some specialists recommend even higher amounts, up to 20,000 mg of salt daily, for people with significant drops upon standing.
For context, the average American eats about 3,400 mg of sodium per day. If you have low blood pressure, you may need to deliberately add salt to your meals or use salt tablets. One practical approach is adding 1,000 to 2,000 mg of sodium to each of your three daily meals. A study of patients who fainted from standing found that adding about 2,400 mg of sodium per day for two months improved their ability to tolerate being upright and enhanced blood flow to their brain.
Salty broths, pickles, olives, and salted nuts are easy ways to work more sodium into your diet without relying solely on a salt shaker.
Eat Smaller, Low-Carb Meals
Blood pressure naturally dips after eating because your body diverts blood to your digestive system. This is called postprandial hypotension, and it’s especially common in older adults. Large meals high in carbohydrates cause the biggest drops.
Switching from three large meals to six smaller ones throughout the day reduces the amount of blood your gut demands at any one time. Keeping those meals lower in carbohydrates helps too, since carbs trigger the strongest digestive blood flow response. Pairing carbohydrates with protein and fat slows digestion and blunts the pressure drop. If you tend to feel lightheaded or drowsy after lunch, meal size and composition are the first things to adjust.
Use Compression Garments
When blood pressure is low, blood tends to pool in your legs and abdomen, especially when you stand. Compression stockings and abdominal binders physically squeeze these areas, pushing blood back toward your heart and brain.
Johns Hopkins Medicine recommends starting with 20 to 30 mmHg compression stockings. If those feel too tight or are hard to get on, 15 to 20 mmHg is a reasonable alternative. If 20 to 30 mmHg isn’t enough, you can step up to 30 to 40 mmHg, though these can be difficult to pull on, particularly if you have loose or hypermobile joints. Waist-high stockings are more effective than knee-high ones because they also compress the thighs. Abdominal binders add another layer of support by preventing blood from pooling in the large veins of your abdomen.
Physical Techniques That Work in Seconds
If you feel a wave of dizziness or lightheadedness, certain body positions and muscle contractions can raise your blood pressure almost immediately. The American Heart Association describes these as physical counterpressure maneuvers, and they work by squeezing blood out of your muscles and back into circulation.
Lower-body techniques:
- Cross your legs and squeeze. While standing or lying down, cross your legs and tense your leg, abdominal, and buttock muscles simultaneously.
- Squat down. Lowering into a squat compresses the large veins in your legs and forces blood upward. Tense your leg and abdominal muscles while squatting, then stand slowly once symptoms pass.
Upper-body techniques:
- Grip and pull. Interlace your fingers in front of your chest and pull your hands apart with maximum force, keeping your grip locked.
- Clench your fist. Make a tight fist, with or without a small object in your hand, and hold the contraction.
- Tuck your chin. Press your chin to your chest and tighten your neck muscles.
These maneuvers are especially useful for the 10 to 15 seconds it takes your body to adjust when you first stand up. They’re not a substitute for the longer-term strategies above, but they can prevent a fall or a fainting episode in the moment.
Medications for Persistent Low Blood Pressure
When lifestyle changes aren’t enough, several prescription medications can help. These are typically reserved for people with orthostatic hypotension or conditions affecting the autonomic nervous system.
The most commonly prescribed option works by tightening blood vessels directly. It activates receptors on the walls of arteries and veins, increasing vascular tone and raising standing blood pressure. Another approach uses a medication that tells your kidneys to retain more sodium, which expands your blood volume over time. Both are well-established treatments with decades of clinical use.
For people whose low pressure is linked to a neurological condition like Parkinson’s disease or autonomic neuropathy, there are medications that boost your body’s production of a key blood-vessel-tightening chemical. These tend to be used when other options haven’t worked or the underlying cause is specifically nerve-related.
Everyday Habits That Help
Beyond the major interventions, a few daily habits can make a meaningful difference. Sleeping with the head of your bed elevated 10 to 20 degrees reduces the amount of fluid your kidneys flush overnight, so you start the morning with more blood volume. Getting up slowly, sitting on the edge of the bed for 30 seconds before standing, gives your cardiovascular system time to adjust.
Caffeine raises blood pressure temporarily and can be strategically timed before meals or before periods of prolonged standing. Avoiding alcohol is also helpful, since it dilates blood vessels and promotes dehydration, both of which push pressure down. Regular, moderate exercise improves your cardiovascular system’s ability to regulate pressure over time, though you should avoid exercising in excessive heat, which worsens blood pooling.
Keeping a log of your blood pressure at different times of day, in different positions, can help you and your doctor identify the specific pattern behind your symptoms and target the right combination of strategies.