Posted by Cam W. on May 8, 2000, at 19:30:35
In reply to Nausea and sweats - Cam/Anyone, posted by Greg on May 8, 2000, at 8:28:30
Greg - It sounds like you could have a case of postural (or orthostatic) hypotension. It is a form of low blood pressure that occurs when you arise from a prone (lying down) position. Basically what may be happening is you are getting up to fast and your veins are not constricting fast enough to pump the blood into you head. Gravity is pooling you blood in you legs and decreased blood to your brain causes the dizziness and nausea (sometimes can cause fainting). Put another way, when you rise too fast you are leaving your blood at a lower altitude (at the level it was when you were lying down). This is seen when one is taking antihypertensives like ß-blockers (eg propranolol), but can happen with many meds. The nausea and sweats are your autonomic (involuntary) nervous system trying to adjust to the sudden rise from a prone position.To see if this is the case, try getting out of bed slowly. First, sit up slowly on the side of the bed. Sit for a minute and then rise slowly to your feet. This should give you body time to adjust to the position of your body and keep pumping blood to your head, hopefully reducing the nausea and dizziness.
Just a thought - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:32755
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000508/msgs/32813.html