Cycling UK Forum

Anyone suffer from orthostatic hypotension after exercise? Symptom is feeling dizzy on standing. Causes are mild dehydration, particularly where bradycardia is present which is common amongst those that exercise regularly. I do frequently, not always, but frequently. As I’ve aged it has become more common.

Have you discussed it with your GP?

NHS advice:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/low-blood ... potension/

and Cambridge's patient information leaflet:
https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-informat ... potension/

Jonathan

I suffer with bradycardia the fitter I get the worse it is. Stand up, one or two steps and I need something to hang on to. A glass of beer and it’s guaranteed
How do you know it’s Orthostatic Hypotension? Do you wear a BP monitor to discover that?

I have read that low blood pressure is normal immediately after exercise. Occasionally i am lightheaded after getting off the bike but put it down to dehydration as it seems more common in warm weather.

Paulatic wrote: ↑28 Aug 2022, 3:44pm I suffer with bradycardia the fitter I get the worse it is. Stand up, one or two steps and I need something to hang on to. A glass of beer and it’s guaranteed
How do you know it’s Orthostatic Hypotension? Do you wear a BP monitor to discover that?

The symptoms are consistent with orthostatic hypotension and there’s a clear classical known cause

The symptoms are consistent with orthostatic hypotension and there’s a clear classical known cause

• Maybe 10 years or so ago I had the symptoms that you have and my GP (an experienced cyclist as it happens) diagnosed Orthostatic Hypotension

• Some 2 years ago I started to suffer from Atrial Fibrilation and when I'm having an episode of AF, the symptoms of standing after siting, going up stairs etc, are identical to the Orthostatic Hypotension I used to get

• So whilst your symptoms match those of Orthostatic Hypotension, those same symptoms could be down to other issues, e.g. an arrhythmia such as AF?

• Just a thought and something to dwell on regarding a medical consultation with a GP?

I can suffer quite badly after exercise and display mild symptoms in normal life

Specifically I have :-
Permanent SUDS syndrome (Stand Up Drunken Stagger), mostly mild worse after a strenuous ride
Occasional SUFO episodes (Stand Up Fall Over) after hard rides
HBA dizzyness (standing up from a Head Below A*se situation)
I also have a tendancy to trigger the red alert sirens when medical personnel are involved

I've had these symptoms most of my life. I was diagnosed with bradycardia after a school rugby match ended in a trip to A&E. Back then my doctor said it's nothing serious, you've inherited it from your mother who is also bradycardic

The last time I spoke to my current doctor I urgently need a cocktail of drugs to control my dangerously low blood pressure and a pacemaker to raise my critically low heart rate. Oh and more drugs to lower my skyhigh blood pressure!. In his opinion I'm basically clinically deceased
The reading that triggered that was 137/62 42bpm. I thanked him for his opinion and took the 40 mile long ride home

That's not to trivialise your issues.
I've been this way all my life so for me it's completely normal. Your case is completely different and you should judge your own GPs advice for yourself, especially if your symptoms are new or changing

bikes4two wrote: ↑29 Aug 2022, 11:20pm

The symptoms are consistent with orthostatic hypotension and there’s a clear classical known cause

• Maybe 10 years or so ago I had the symptoms that you have and my GP (an experienced cyclist as it happens) diagnosed Orthostatic Hypotension

• Some 2 years ago I started to suffer from Atrial Fibrilation and when I'm having an episode of AF, the symptoms of standing after siting, going up stairs etc, are identical to the Orthostatic Hypotension I used to get

• So whilst your symptoms match those of Orthostatic Hypotension, those same symptoms could be down to other issues, e.g. an arrhythmia such as AF?

• Just a thought and something to dwell on regarding a medical consultation with a GP?

My AF causes both high and low BP (but not at the same time obvs), I was getting symptoms long before I was diagnosed.

David2504 wrote: ↑29 Aug 2022, 8:50pm

Paulatic wrote: ↑28 Aug 2022, 3:44pm How do you know it’s Orthostatic Hypotension? Do you wear a BP monitor to discover that?

The symptoms are consistent with orthostatic hypotension and there’s a clear classical known cause

If they're the typical symptoms of feeling faint or lightheaded there are quite a lot of causes. If that's immediately relieved by lying down that narrows it down. But I don't think that this can be reliably diagnosed without some measurements of blood pressure.

Jonathan

axel_knutt wrote: ↑30 Aug 2022, 4:31pm ...............
My AF causes both high and low BP (but not at the same time obvs), I was getting symptoms long before I was diagnosed.

In AF, the atria are going 19 to the dozen; the ventricles can't keep up, so ventricular contractions occur at fairly random intervals. (You get a ventricular contraction following on from an atrial contraction; but only if the ventricles have recovered from the previous contraction.) The radial pulse is markedly irregular in many sufferers....its the ventricular contractions which produce the pulse.
Why does this cause both high and low blood pressure? The ventricles pump blood into an elastic system; the aorta and major arteries are elastic, which both reduces the workload of the heart and controls pressure; the amplitude of the pressure wave is maintained (or even increases) as you get further from the heart because the blood vessel walls are stiffer.
If you get 2 ventricular contractions close together, the blood pressure can be high; when contractions are a long time apart, the pressure has a long time to reduce.
.....I thought a chap like you might appreciate that!