Low blood pressure, generally defined as a reading below 90/60 mmHg, can cause dizziness, fatigue, lightheadedness, and fainting. The good news is that most cases respond well to straightforward lifestyle changes. Raising your blood pressure typically involves a combination of increasing salt and fluid intake, adjusting how you eat and move, and sometimes wearing compression garments.
Increase Your Salt and Fluid Intake
Salt is usually the first-line strategy for improving low blood pressure because sodium helps your body retain fluid, which increases blood volume. For people with orthostatic hypotension (the type that causes dizziness when you stand up), doctors often recommend 8 to 10 grams of sodium chloride per day. That’s roughly double what most dietary guidelines suggest for the general population. Some people reach that target through food alone, while others use supplemental salt tablets containing about 1 gram each.
Hydration matters just as much. The general recommendation is six to eight glasses of fluid per day, but if your blood pressure is consistently low, you may benefit from drinking more than that, especially in hot weather or after exercise. Water is fine, but beverages with electrolytes can be particularly helpful because they replace both fluid and sodium at the same time. Caffeine can also provide a short-term blood pressure boost for some people, though its effects vary.
If you have heart failure or kidney disease, or you’ve been placed on a fluid restriction, talk to your doctor before increasing salt or fluids. These strategies are safe for most people with low blood pressure, but they can create problems when other conditions are involved.
Adjust How and What You Eat
Blood pressure naturally drops after meals as your body diverts blood flow to your digestive system. This is called postprandial hypotension, and it’s especially common in older adults. Two changes help considerably: eating smaller, more frequent meals (six per day instead of three) and keeping those meals low in carbohydrates. Large, carb-heavy meals cause the biggest post-meal blood pressure drops because they trigger more blood flow to the gut.
If you notice dizziness or lightheadedness within 30 to 90 minutes of eating, this pattern is likely contributing to your symptoms. Swapping a big pasta dinner for a smaller portion of protein and vegetables, spread across more frequent meals, can make a noticeable difference.
Use Physical Counter-Maneuvers
When you feel symptoms coming on, specific body movements can quickly push blood pressure up by squeezing blood from your lower body back toward your heart and brain. The American Heart Association recommends several techniques:
- Leg crossing with muscle tensing: Cross your legs while tightening your leg, abdominal, and buttock muscles. You can do this while standing or lying down.
- Squatting: Lower yourself into a squat, tense your lower body and abdominal muscles, and hold until symptoms pass. Stand up slowly once you feel better.
- Arm tensing: Grip your hands together, interlocking your fingers, and pull your arms in opposite directions with maximum force.
- Isometric handgrip: Clench your fist as hard as you can, with or without something in your hand.
These maneuvers work within seconds and can prevent a full fainting episode. They’re especially useful during the transition from sitting to standing, which is when blood pressure tends to drop most sharply. Practice them when you’re feeling fine so they become second nature when you actually need them.
Try Compression Garments
Compression stockings prevent blood from pooling in your legs and abdomen, which is one of the main reasons blood pressure drops when you stand. Most specialists recommend waist-high stockings in the 20 to 30 mmHg or 30 to 40 mmHg pressure range. Waist-high garments are more effective than knee-high or thigh-high options because blood pooling doesn’t just happen in the calves. It occurs throughout the lower half of the body, including the thighs and abdomen.
That said, waist-high stockings can be uncomfortable and difficult to put on. If you can’t tolerate them, thigh-high or knee-high versions still provide some benefit. The key is wearing them consistently during the hours you’re upright, not just on bad days.
Change How You Move Through Your Day
Small changes in how you transition between positions can prevent the sudden drops that cause the most trouble. Stand up slowly, pausing at the edge of the bed or chair for a few seconds before fully rising. Pump your feet or clench your leg muscles a few times before standing. Avoid standing still for long periods, as this allows blood to pool. If you have to stand in a line or at a counter, shift your weight, rock on your heels, or march in place.
Exercise helps over time by improving your cardiovascular fitness and your body’s ability to regulate blood pressure during position changes. Walking, swimming, and cycling are all good options. Avoid exercises that involve sudden position changes, like burpees, and be cautious with hot yoga or anything in a heated environment, since heat dilates blood vessels and can worsen symptoms.
Review Your Medications
Several common medication classes lower blood pressure as either their intended effect or a side effect. These include blood pressure medications (beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, diuretics), antidepressants, drugs used for Parkinson’s disease, and medications for erectile dysfunction. If you’re taking any of these and experiencing symptoms of low blood pressure, the medication may be the primary cause.
Don’t stop or change any medication on your own. But it’s worth bringing this up with your prescribing doctor, because adjusting the dose, changing the timing (taking blood pressure medications at night instead of morning, for example), or switching to a different drug in the same class can often resolve the problem while still treating the original condition.
What Doesn’t Work as Well as Expected
Sleeping with the head of your bed elevated by six inches is a commonly recommended strategy, but a controlled trial of older adults with orthostatic hypotension found that it produced no additional improvement in symptoms or blood pressure readings after six weeks compared to other non-drug measures alone. If you find it comfortable, it won’t hurt, but it’s not the intervention to prioritize if you’re looking for meaningful results. Focus your energy on salt, fluids, compression, and the movement strategies above.