A diastolic blood pressure consistently below 60 mmHg can cause fatigue, dizziness, and lightheadedness, and over time it may compromise blood flow to the heart. Raising it involves a combination of dietary changes, physical habits, and in some cases medication. The right approach depends on what’s driving your low reading in the first place.
Why Diastolic Pressure Drops
Normal blood pressure is defined as below 120/80 mmHg. The bottom number, diastolic pressure, reflects the pressure in your arteries between heartbeats, when your heart is filling with blood. There’s no single official cutoff for “too low,” but research consistently flags a diastolic reading below 60 mmHg as a concern, particularly when systolic pressure stays normal or elevated.
The most common cause is age-related stiffening of the aorta, your body’s largest artery. As the aorta loses flexibility, systolic (top number) pressure rises while diastolic pressure falls, widening the gap between the two numbers. This pattern, called isolated diastolic hypotension, is primarily a consequence of reduced arterial elasticity rather than a heart pumping problem. Other causes include dehydration, prolonged bed rest, certain blood pressure medications that overshoot their target, and conditions that affect blood volume or nervous system regulation.
Why It Matters for Your Heart
Your coronary arteries, the vessels feeding your heart muscle, receive most of their blood supply during the diastolic phase of each heartbeat. When diastolic pressure falls too low, the driving force behind that blood flow weakens. A large study using sensitive markers of heart muscle damage found that people with diastolic pressure below 60 mmHg were roughly twice as likely to show signs of subclinical cardiac injury compared to those with readings between 80 and 89 mmHg. That same low range was linked to higher rates of coronary heart disease events and mortality over time, though not to stroke.
The risk is especially pronounced in people whose systolic pressure remains at 120 mmHg or above, because the wide gap between the two numbers signals significant arterial stiffness. Researchers have suggested that when treating high systolic pressure, clinicians should aim to keep diastolic levels from falling below 70 mmHg, and particularly not below 60.
Increase Salt and Fluid Intake
For most people with low blood pressure, sodium is part of the solution rather than the enemy. Salt helps your body retain water, which expands blood volume and supports pressure in the arteries. Medical guidelines for people with orthostatic disorders (conditions where blood pressure drops upon standing) recommend between 2,400 and 4,000 mg of sodium per day, with some protocols going as high as 4,800 mg. For context, the average American already consumes about 3,400 mg daily, so the increase may be modest.
A practical approach is adding 1,000 to 2,000 mg of sodium to your diet spread across three meals. One study found that about 2,400 mg of daily sodium supplementation over two months improved both blood vessel control and the brain’s ability to regulate its own blood flow in people who had been excreting low amounts of sodium. Salty broth, pickles, olives, salted nuts, and electrolyte drinks are easy ways to boost intake without dramatically changing your diet.
Hydration matters just as much as salt. Without enough fluid, extra sodium has nothing to hold onto. Drinking water consistently throughout the day, rather than in large amounts at once, helps maintain steady blood volume. Aim for at least 2 to 3 liters daily unless you have a condition that requires fluid restriction.
Adjust How and When You Eat
Blood pressure often dips after meals because your body diverts blood toward the digestive system. This postprandial drop can be significant if your baseline is already low. Several straightforward habits can blunt the effect:
- Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Six smaller meals instead of three large ones reduces the blood volume shift to your gut at any one time.
- Cut carbohydrates at meals. Carb-heavy meals cause a larger post-meal blood pressure drop than meals built around protein and fat.
- Drink water before eating. Consuming 12 to 16 ounces of water about 15 minutes before a meal helps prop up blood volume before the digestive diversion begins.
- Have caffeine with breakfast or lunch. Caffeine constricts blood vessels and can offset post-meal drops, though it loses effectiveness if consumed late in the day or in excess.
- Walk for 10 minutes after eating. Light movement keeps blood circulating through your muscles rather than pooling in your abdomen.
If you take blood pressure medication, timing it away from meals can also help prevent compounding the post-meal dip.
Use Body Position and Compression
Gravity is one of the biggest enemies of low blood pressure. When you stand up, roughly 500 to 700 mL of blood shifts into your legs within seconds. If your body can’t compensate quickly, diastolic pressure drops and you feel dizzy or faint.
Standing up slowly, especially in the morning, gives your cardiovascular system time to adjust. Sleeping with the head of your bed elevated 10 to 15 degrees (about 4 to 6 inches) trains your body to retain more fluid overnight by reducing nighttime kidney output. Crossing your legs while standing or tensing your thigh and abdominal muscles can provide a quick pressure boost in the moment.
Compression garments, particularly waist-high stockings or abdominal binders, work by reducing the space available for blood to pool in your lower body. While one study found that standard compression stockings alone didn’t significantly change diastolic pressure in healthy women, their benefit is more apparent in people who already experience blood pressure drops upon standing. Waist-high compression or abdominal binders tend to be more effective than knee-high stockings because they cover a larger vascular territory.
Exercise to Support Vascular Tone
Regular physical activity improves the responsiveness of your blood vessels and your body’s ability to regulate pressure. Aerobic exercise like walking, cycling, or swimming strengthens the cardiovascular system over time, making blood pressure regulation more efficient. For people with very low blood pressure, recumbent exercises (stationary cycling, rowing, swimming) are useful because they don’t require you to fight gravity while your heart rate is elevated.
Resistance training also plays a role. Exercises that involve sustained muscle contraction, like wall sits, planks, or squeezing a handgrip device, temporarily raise both systolic and diastolic pressure during the effort. Over weeks and months, this type of training can improve the baseline tone of your blood vessels. An eight-week handgrip training program reduced diastolic pressure by about 3 mmHg in people who started with elevated readings, which confirms that isometric exercise has a real, measurable effect on diastolic pressure regulation, though the direction of change depends on where you start.
When Medication Becomes Necessary
If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, two main medication categories target low blood pressure through different mechanisms. One type works by helping your kidneys retain sodium and expand your blood volume. It also amplifies the effect of your body’s natural vessel-tightening signals. The other type directly constricts blood vessels, physically narrowing them to raise pressure. Both are typically prescribed for orthostatic hypotension rather than isolated low diastolic readings, and they come with trade-offs. The volume-expanding type has been associated with higher hospitalization rates compared to the vessel-constricting type, so your doctor’s choice will depend on your overall health profile.
It’s also worth reviewing any medications you’re already taking. Blood pressure drugs, certain antidepressants, prostate medications, and Parkinson’s treatments can all lower diastolic pressure as a side effect. Sometimes the fix is adjusting a dose or switching to an alternative rather than adding a new drug.
Putting It Together
Raising diastolic blood pressure is rarely about one single change. The most effective approach layers several strategies: increasing salt and fluid intake to expand blood volume, eating smaller and lower-carb meals to prevent post-meal drops, using body positioning and compression to fight gravity, and exercising regularly to improve vascular tone. Track your readings at home with a validated cuff, checking at the same time each day and in both sitting and standing positions. If your diastolic pressure regularly falls below 60 mmHg and you’re experiencing symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, or near-fainting, that pattern is worth bringing to a medical appointment with your logged numbers in hand.