Hypotension, or low blood pressure, is generally defined as a reading below 90/60 mmHg. Treatment depends on what’s causing it and how severe your symptoms are, but most people start with a combination of lifestyle changes: increasing salt and fluid intake, wearing compression garments, and learning simple physical maneuvers that can raise blood pressure in seconds. Medications are typically reserved for cases where these steps aren’t enough.
Increase Your Salt and Fluid Intake
Salt helps your body hold onto water, which increases blood volume and raises blood pressure. For people with orthostatic hypotension (the kind that causes dizziness when you stand up), medical guidelines recommend significantly more sodium than the average person consumes. The American Society of Hypertension suggests 2,400 to 4,000 mg of sodium per day for these patients, while other expert groups recommend going higher, up to 4,000 to 8,000 mg daily. A practical way to increase intake is to add 1,000 to 2,000 mg of sodium to each of your three daily meals, though the exact target depends on your situation and should be guided by your doctor.
These numbers are dramatically higher than what’s recommended for the general population (under 2,300 mg), which is why increasing salt intake only makes sense if you actually have low blood pressure. Common ways to get more sodium include salting food liberally, drinking broth, eating pickled foods, or using salt tablets.
Staying well-hydrated matters just as much. Drinking about 16 ounces (480 mL) of water in one sitting has been shown to raise blood pressure on its own. Aim for consistent fluid intake throughout the day rather than catching up in large amounts at once.
Physical Maneuvers That Work Quickly
If you feel lightheaded or sense you’re about to faint, specific body movements can raise your systolic blood pressure by roughly 15 mmHg within seconds. These work by squeezing your muscles around blood vessels, pushing blood back toward your heart and brain. The European Society of Cardiology lists these as a first-line intervention for people prone to fainting episodes.
The most effective maneuvers include:
- Leg crossing with tensing: Cross your legs while standing and squeeze your thigh and calf muscles together.
- Squatting: Drop into a full squat, or bend forward with your head between your knees (sometimes called the “crash position”).
- Hand gripping: Squeeze one hand into a tight fist and hold it, or grip a small ball as hard as you can.
- Lower body tensing: While standing or sitting, contract your abdomen, buttocks, and thigh muscles simultaneously.
- Calf raises and marching in place: Pump your calf muscles by rising onto your toes repeatedly.
These maneuvers are most useful when you notice warning signs like dizziness, tunnel vision, or feeling warm and clammy. They buy time for your cardiovascular system to adjust, especially during prolonged standing.
Compression Garments
Compression stockings and abdominal binders prevent blood from pooling in your legs and abdomen when you stand. Johns Hopkins Medicine recommends starting with 20 to 30 mmHg of compression pressure. If that feels too tight or is hard to put on, 15 to 20 mmHg is a reasonable alternative. If it’s not enough, you can move up to 30 to 40 mmHg, though garments at that pressure level can be difficult to pull on, especially if you have joint hypermobility or limited hand strength.
Waist-high stockings are more effective than knee-high ones because a significant amount of blood pools in the abdomen and upper thighs. Some people combine thigh-high stockings with a separate abdominal binder for the best results. Putting them on first thing in the morning, before you get out of bed, prevents blood from pooling before you’re even upright.
Elevate the Head of Your Bed
Sleeping with the head of your bed raised about 4 inches (10 cm), roughly 10 to 20 degrees of incline, can improve blood pressure the following morning. This works by reducing how much fluid your kidneys filter out overnight. When you sleep completely flat, your body senses higher blood volume (since gravity isn’t pulling blood to your legs) and responds by flushing extra sodium and water through your urine. By morning, you’ve lost volume you needed.
You can achieve this angle by placing blocks or risers under the head of the bed frame. Propping yourself up with pillows is less effective because it bends at the waist rather than tilting your whole body.
Adjust How You Eat
Blood pressure naturally drops after meals because your body diverts blood flow to your digestive system. This is called postprandial hypotension, and it’s especially common in older adults. Large, carbohydrate-heavy meals cause the biggest drops.
Eating six smaller meals instead of three large ones keeps blood pressure more stable throughout the day. Reducing the carbohydrate content of each meal also helps, since carbohydrates trigger faster digestion and greater blood flow to the gut. If you can’t avoid a high-carb meal, some doctors prescribe a medication that slows carbohydrate absorption, taken only with that specific meal.
Stand Up Slowly and Strategically
Simple habits around how you move can prevent the worst symptoms. When getting out of bed, sit on the edge for 30 seconds before standing. When getting up from a chair, tense your leg muscles before you rise. Avoid standing motionless for long periods. If you have to stand in line or at an event, shift your weight, rise on your toes, or cross your legs to keep blood circulating.
Hot environments and hot showers cause blood vessels to dilate, which can worsen low blood pressure. Keeping showers lukewarm and avoiding prolonged heat exposure makes a noticeable difference for many people.
When Medication Is Needed
If lifestyle adjustments don’t provide enough relief, doctors may prescribe medication. The three most commonly used options work through different mechanisms.
One type is a synthetic hormone that mimics a natural hormone involved in sodium balance. It raises blood pressure by helping your kidneys retain salt and water, increasing your overall blood volume. This is typically started at a low dose and rarely increased beyond a certain point because higher doses tend to cause side effects like potassium depletion without additional blood pressure benefit.
A second option directly tightens blood vessels, raising pressure more immediately. It’s short-acting and sometimes used on an as-needed basis for specific situations, like before activities that involve a lot of standing.
A third medication works by helping your body produce more of the chemical messenger (norepinephrine) that constricts blood vessels. It’s used specifically for people whose low blood pressure stems from nervous system problems, such as those with Parkinson’s disease. Doses are gradually increased over days until symptoms improve or a maximum is reached.
All of these carry a risk of raising blood pressure too much, particularly while lying down. That’s one reason head-of-bed elevation is recommended alongside medication: it helps prevent high blood pressure spikes at night even while treating low pressure during the day.
Signs of Dangerous Hypotension
Mild low blood pressure that only causes occasional dizziness when standing is common and manageable. But certain symptoms indicate your blood pressure is critically low and affecting organ function. These include confusion or difficulty thinking clearly, cold and clammy skin, rapid shallow breathing, a weak or unusually fast pulse, blurred vision, and nausea. Fainting is the body’s last-resort mechanism to get you horizontal so blood can reach your brain.
If low blood pressure develops suddenly after an injury, infection, severe allergic reaction, or significant fluid loss from vomiting or diarrhea, it requires emergency treatment. A gradual pattern of worsening dizziness, fatigue, or near-fainting episodes also warrants medical evaluation, since chronic hypotension can sometimes signal an underlying condition like adrenal insufficiency, heart valve problems, or autonomic nerve damage.