Low blood pressure, defined as a reading of 90/60 or lower, doesn’t always need treatment. Many people walk around with naturally low numbers and feel perfectly fine. But if yours is causing dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting, or fatigue, there are concrete steps you can take to bring it up and keep it stable.
Quick Fixes When You Feel It Dropping
If you suddenly feel dizzy or lightheaded, your blood pressure has likely dipped and your brain isn’t getting enough blood flow. The fastest response is to change your body position: sit or lie down immediately. If you can’t do that, lower yourself into a squat. These positions move blood back toward your heart and brain within seconds.
Physical counter-pressure maneuvers, recommended by the American Heart Association, can also raise your pressure on the spot. Cross your legs while standing or lying down and tense your leg, abdominal, and buttock muscles simultaneously. Another option: grip your hands together, interlocking your fingers, and pull your arms in opposite directions with maximum force. Even clenching your fist as hard as you can works. These techniques squeeze blood out of your muscles and back into circulation, buying you time until the episode passes.
Drinking a full glass of water can also help. Research published in the AHA’s journal Circulation found that water drinking acutely improves the body’s ability to tolerate position changes. Keep a water bottle within reach if these episodes happen regularly.
How Much Water and Salt You Actually Need
Chronic low blood pressure responds well to two straightforward dietary changes: more fluid and more salt. Most clinical guidelines recommend drinking 2 to 3 liters of fluid per day. That’s roughly 8 to 12 cups. Spacing it out matters more than hitting the number in one sitting, since your body can only absorb so much at once.
Salt is the other half of the equation. For people with orthostatic disorders (where blood pressure drops upon standing), guidelines from the American Society of Hypertension recommend 2,400 to 4,000 milligrams of sodium per day. For context, the average American already eats about 3,400 mg daily, so you may only need a modest increase. Some specialists recommend adding 1,000 to 2,000 mg of sodium to your existing diet, spread across three meals. Salting your food more liberally, snacking on olives or pickles, or drinking broth are easy ways to get there. This is one of the rare situations where the usual “eat less salt” advice gets flipped on its head.
Meal Size and Timing Matter
Blood pressure naturally dips after eating because your body diverts blood to your digestive system. For some people, this drop is steep enough to cause symptoms, a condition called postprandial hypotension. It’s especially common in older adults.
The fix is simple: eat six smaller meals throughout the day instead of three large ones. A smaller meal requires less blood flow to digest, so the pressure drop is gentler. Cutting back on refined carbohydrates at meals can also help, since they tend to cause a sharper post-meal dip than protein or fat-rich foods.
Compression Garments
Waist-high compression stockings physically squeeze blood upward from your legs toward your heart, preventing it from pooling in your lower body. Most experts in autonomic disorders recommend stockings rated at 20 to 30 mmHg or 30 to 40 mmHg of pressure. The key detail is “waist-high.” Knee-high stockings don’t cover enough surface area to make a meaningful difference for blood pressure, though they’re fine for other circulatory issues. Abdominal binders serve a similar purpose by compressing the blood vessels in your abdomen.
These garments work best in the morning, when blood pressure tends to be lowest. Putting them on before you get out of bed can prevent that initial standing-up dip that catches many people off guard.
Lifestyle Habits That Help
Beyond the big interventions, a few daily habits make a noticeable difference. Getting up slowly from sitting or lying positions gives your cardiovascular system time to adjust. Sleeping with the head of your bed elevated 6 to 10 inches (using bed risers, not just extra pillows) trains your body to retain more fluid overnight. Avoiding alcohol is important because it dilates blood vessels and lowers pressure further. Hot showers and baths do the same thing, so keep the water warm rather than hot, and sit on a shower stool if you tend to get dizzy.
Regular exercise also helps over time by improving how well your blood vessels respond to position changes. Walking, swimming, and cycling are all good choices. Just be cautious with exercises that involve sudden position changes, like burpees or getting up quickly from floor work.
When Medication Becomes an Option
If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, several medications can raise blood pressure. The most commonly prescribed one works by tightening blood vessels directly, taken three times a day. Another option is a synthetic hormone that helps your kidneys hold onto more sodium, which increases the volume of fluid in your bloodstream. A third medication works by boosting levels of a chemical messenger that raises blood pressure.
These medications are typically reserved for people whose symptoms significantly affect daily life, such as frequent falls, inability to stand for normal activities, or repeated fainting episodes. Your doctor will usually ask you to try fluid, salt, compression, and physical maneuvers first, since those carry no side effects and work well for many people.
Signs That Need Urgent Attention
Low blood pressure on its own isn’t dangerous for most people. But certain combinations of symptoms signal something more serious: confusion, cold or clammy skin, rapid shallow breathing, a weak and fast pulse, or fainting that doesn’t resolve quickly after lying down. These can indicate shock, severe dehydration, internal bleeding, or a serious infection. If low blood pressure comes on suddenly after starting a new medication, that’s also worth an immediate call to your prescriber, since several common drug classes (blood pressure medications, antidepressants, prostate drugs) can drop pressure as a side effect.