16.06.2017
People complain of dizzy spells. This phenomenon occurs at any age, even in children.
Dizziness (vertigo) is a subjective condition in which the patient feels as if objects are starting to move around him.
The patient thinks that he is moving in space. Dizziness is characterized by loss of balance, nausea, and inability to focus on a specific object.
Dizziness is not a disease that can occur on its own, but a symptom of various pathologies. Medical statistics indicate that 85 physiological processes in the body can provoke dizziness.
Patients complain of dizziness with neurological, psychological, cardiological, ophthalmological and ENT pathologies.
The phenomenon of dizziness is considered a serious medical problem and has a dangerous and unpleasant course.
It is quite difficult for a doctor to manage patients with dizziness. The first step is to diagnose the causes or provoking pathology. To do this, carry out many diagnostic measures.
The main causes of dizziness are sudden jumps in blood pressure. Dizziness occurs with low blood pressure.
Low blood pressure (hypotension) can be an independent disease, or it can be a consequence of a serious pathology. Doctors can confidently say that a patient has hypotension if their blood pressure readings fall below 110/65 millimeters of mercury.
If the pressure drops even lower, the patient begins to feel sick and may lose consciousness. Fainting occurs when there is a sharp drop in blood pressure.
Main signs of hypotension
The main symptom of low blood pressure is dizziness. It can occur episodically - after taking drugs against hypotension or systematically - when changing body position.
If these symptoms persist, the patient should consult a physician. However, other signs may also characterize a decrease in pressure:
- attacks of cephalalgia,
- fainting state,
- vomiting, feeling of nausea,
- increased sensitivity to changing weather conditions,
- depression,
- throbbing spasms in the temples,
- memory loss.
Such symptoms do not bother patients with a developed parasympathetic system. Their low blood pressure is normal. Hypotonic patients do not experience any discomfort at levels of 90 to 60, but 120 to 80 can cause a sharp deterioration in their health. Sedatives or hypoglycemic and diuretics will help lower blood pressure.
How does low blood pressure affect a person's well-being?
Hypotension is manifested by a number of characteristic symptoms.
When blood pressure drops, the patient may not only feel dizzy and have a headache, but also experience the following signs of illness:
- the skin turns pale and becomes cool to the touch;
- feelings of drowsiness, weakness and increased fatigue appear;
- nausea and bouts of vomiting are felt.
Head pain, one of the main symptoms, manifests itself in patients to varying degrees and does not have a specific location. Most often, these are aching sensations of weak or medium intensity, which are felt in different parts of the head.
Depending on which part hurts, the severity of the sensation depends.
To determine exactly where the headache occurs when pressure drops, you need to undergo an examination.
Origin of vertigo and hypotension
Low blood pressure and attacks of dizziness occur with VSD. Vegetative-vascular syndrome is not a pathology, but a set of signs that determine malfunctions in the performance of internal systems. With this syndrome, the tone of the arterial walls is impaired, which leads to low blood pressure and vertigo.
Causes of the pathological condition:
- Adolescence is considered to be the main trigger for low blood pressure and attacks of vertigo.
- Genetic predisposition.
- Hormonal imbalance.
- Stress, depression, fear.
- External and internal bleeding.
- Consequences of other diseases.
In women, the causes of malaise lie in menstruation due to bleeding and changes in hormone levels. Hypotension can develop with high fever, dehydration caused by excessive sweating or poisoning, accompanied by upset stool and vomiting.
The causes of vertigo may include constant lack of sleep, overwork, and nervous tension. In representatives of the fairer sex, a similar syndrome is observed before a migraine.
What types of dizziness are there?
Dizziness may result from disorders of the cardiovascular system, inner ear, vestibular organ, or central nervous system.
There are two different forms of vertigo: psychogenic (non-systemic) and true (systemic) vertigo. There is a rarer form of vertigo in which the patient feels as if he is falling into an abyss.
Psychogenic vertigo is not life-threatening for the patient. However, systemic can cause serious impairment of the patient's life.
A common but serious cause of dizziness attacks is, for example, benign positional vertigo, which can often occur with sudden changes in body position. The reason for this is small ear stones that rupture and settle in the semicircular tubules of the balance organ.
Other causes of dizziness may include inflammation of the inner ear, cardiovascular disease, ophthalmological disorders, mental or neurological disorders such as migraines, stroke or Parkinson's disease. All potential diagnoses should be excluded or confirmed only by the attending physician.
Why does hypotension cause pain and dizziness?
In adolescence, symptoms of the pathological condition are observed infrequently. But over time, the syndrome becomes more pronounced.
The main symptom of low blood pressure is cephalgia. You can understand that unpleasant discomfort is caused by hypotension by the nature of the sensations. Many patients feel very nauseous, experience increased fatigue, and feel a bursting, pressing or dull pain. Some note that the spasms are pulsating and paroxysmal. Their location is often very difficult to determine.
If the patient has low blood pressure and is very dizzy, discomfort may be localized in the crown, forehead, temples, and back of the head. Painful discomfort occurs due to impaired tone of the arterial walls. Often spasms appear after physical or mental stress. Some people report feeling worse after a day's rest.
The duration of attacks ranges from 2-3 hours to several days. After their completion, the unpleasant discomfort disappears, but the patient may complain of weakness and a general deterioration in health.
Sudden changes in atmospheric pressure can increase the risk of developing pathological symptoms in hypotensive patients, who have difficulty adapting to changes in climatic conditions and do not tolerate stuffy rooms. Hypotonic patients note not only the appearance of headaches, but also dizziness.
What to do?
What to do if your blood pressure drops sharply and you start to feel dizzy?
- Lie down on the bed and relax.
- Try to calm down. This condition is temporary, and nervousness will aggravate the situation and cause an increase in heart rate.
- Focus your gaze on one point, this will help avoid fainting.
- To eliminate vertigo, massage the back of your head.
In severe conditions caused by persistent arterial hypotension, you should immediately seek medical help (call an ambulance, go to the doctor yourself, or take a relative).
Prevention of the disease
To avoid getting sick, change your lifestyle:
- Learn to eat healthy. Remove preservatives, dyes, emulsifiers from your diet, add fresh vegetables and fruits, take multivitamins.
- Do physical therapy. It helps to normalize the functioning of all organs and systems.
- Manage your time wisely so that you have the opportunity to rest. Go to bed no later than 23.00. And before going to bed, try to walk for half an hour in the fresh air.
Correct diagnosis
To find out the cause of hypotension and dizziness, get examined by a therapist and do the following research:
- ultrasound examination (ultrasound) of the neck and brain;
- radiography;
- Magnetic resonance imaging.
Treatment with tablets
Drug treatment should be carried out under the supervision of the attending physician. Typically, for dizziness caused by low blood pressure, it is recommended to take the following medications:
ethnoscience
In addition to medications, folk recipes help well with hypotension:
- Tincture of prickly tartar. Take 2 tbsp. l. dry herbs, pour 200 ml of boiling water, boil for 10 minutes and leave for 30 minutes. Strain, take 1 tbsp. l. 4 times a day.
- Take 1 tbsp. l. crushed rhodiola root, pour ½ glass of vodka, leave for 10 days in a dark place. Drink 15-20 drops half an hour before meals for three weeks.
- Mix 40 g of red rowan fruits, 30 g of wheatgrass roots, 25 g of wild strawberry leaves, 20 g of dandelion root. Pour the mixture with 400 ml of boiling water, let it brew for 4 hours, strain. Take 100 ml 3 times a day before meals.
Low blood pressure during pregnancy
Very often, hypotension is observed in women in an “interesting position.” Here we can distinguish several variants of the pathological condition:
- A disease that was diagnosed in a pregnant woman before conception. The disease can also develop during pregnancy. In such a situation, it does not pose any danger to the life and health of the expectant mother, but the child may experience various complications. Due to the disease, blood flow is disrupted, which negatively affects the baby. There is a risk of hypoxia and other consequences.
- “Interesting position” is the main reason for the development of the syndrome. A similar condition is diagnosed in the 1st trimester with toxicosis. Pathology can also be a sign of bleeding in the uterus and a threat of premature termination of pregnancy.
How dangerous is hypotension for humans?
Low blood pressure at a young age can later cause hypertension. If the body remains in this state for a long time, the risk of developing hypertension increases significantly.
Low blood pressure is very often a sign of disturbances in the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, as well as ailments of the gastrointestinal tract, myocardial infarction, thyroid or adrenal dysfunction, and anaphylactic shock. Hypotension signals the presence of these diseases.
If the causes of the pathological condition are a violation of the autonomic functions of the central nervous system, the symptoms may be as follows:
- sudden fainting,
- decreased performance of “gray matter”, memory,
- lack of coordination
- deterioration of visual functions,
- heart pathologies,
- poor resistance to loads.
If low blood pressure is the primary symptom without signs of other diseases, then most likely this is a consequence of VSD. When hypotension develops due to an underlying illness, it poses a serious threat to a person. If you systematically feel dizzy with low blood pressure, you should immediately consult a doctor.
Medications for hypotensive patients
Herbal medicines will help raise blood pressure levels. But before taking medications against hypotension, you should check what pressure the patient has at a certain point in time. Migraine attacks can develop for other reasons.
Your doctor will tell you what to take for low blood pressure and vertigo after an examination. But the most popular tinctures for the treatment of hypotension are:
- radiola pink;
- Schisandra chinensis;
- ginseng;
- Eleutherococcus
For low blood pressure, medications that contain caffeine, as well as a pure product with sufficient sugar content, are prescribed. They tone the arteries, their lumen decreases. As a result, the pressure increases and the intensity of pain discomfort decreases.
For migraine attacks caused by hypotension, you can take caffeine benzoate, Extra Panadol, citramon. The composition contains caffeine. Antispasmodics will help reduce pain. You can take "Drotaverine", "Spazmalgon", "No-shpu". But these medications can make vertigo worse.
Multivitamin complexes with ascorbic acid and the beneficial substance B12 have a positive effect on the nervous system and the general condition of the body. Most doctors recommend Apilak. It restores vascular tone and improves the general condition of vascular atherosclerosis.
Before using drugs against low blood pressure, it is better to undergo examination to exclude the possibility of developing a serious disease that could provoke such a disorder.
At the first signs of hypotension and frequent attacks of dizziness, you should contact a qualified neurologist. You should not try to cope with the pathological condition on your own; even a single dose of the wrong drug can provoke various disorders. The doctor will recommend a list of medications taking into account the characteristics of the patient’s body.
Prevention of pathological condition
If hypotension is a consequence of any illness, it should be treated first. If the syndrome occurs on its own, certain recommendations must be followed.
What to do if a person has low blood pressure and is often dizzy:
- Follow a daily routine (sleep at least 8 hours; if you have insomnia, you should consult a doctor to prescribe sedatives).
- It is not recommended to get out of bed immediately in the morning; there is a risk of collapse and loss of consciousness.
- Light exercises, lying down: turning the head, extending and bending the limbs (after this you can sit down and get up after a few minutes).
- Hardening, water procedures: contrast shower.
- Physical activity, sports.
- Exercise in the morning for 10-15 minutes.
- Nutritious breakfast, coffee with sugar.
- Healthy eating throughout the day.
