Ever feel dizzy when you stand up?

Don’t ignore dizziness

If you’ve ever felt dizzy standing up, there’s a name for that. It’s called orthostatic hypotension. And it happens when your blood pressure drops suddenly.

It may seem like nothing, but new research shows that it’s possibly something. It may mean undiagnosed heart failure.

The study appears in the journal Hypertension.

It was conducted as part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, and included 12,363 adults without heart failure.

At the study’s start, researchers measured each person’s blood pressure to determine orthostatic hypotension. That’s when systolic blood pressure (the top number) drops more than 20 points or diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) drops by more than 10 points upon standing. They also tracked incidence of heart failure among the study’s participants.

Nearly 18 years later, researchers found a pattern–orthostatic hypotension was a symptom of heart failure among middle-aged individuals, particularly those 45 to 55 years of age.

Folks, this is a heads-up to get checked when something seems off. A few spells of dizziness signals a call to your doctor. Get your blood pressure checked. And mention the dizzy spells.

And remember, it’s not just high blood pressure that you should be concerned about. Blood pressure that isn’t controlled in either direction is a concern. You should think actively about your blood pressure overall. And work to maintain healthy circulation from head to toe.