Should I be worried if I get dizzy when I stand up?

Índice Show

The common causes of lightheadedness
Orthostatic hypotension
Heart arrhythmia
Medications
Dehydration
Autonomic neuropathy
Stress and panic attacks
What to do if you feel faint
Next steps:

It's common to sometimes feel dizzy, lightheaded or off-balance, and it's not usually serious. See a GP if you're worried.

Dizziness includes feeling:

off-balance
giddy
lightheaded or faint
like you're spinning or things around you are spinning (vertigo)

Dizziness usually goes away on its own. But there are things you can do to take care of yourself while you're feeling dizzy.

lie down until the dizziness passes, then get up slowly
move slowly and carefully
get plenty of rest
drink plenty of fluids, especially water
avoid coffee, cigarettes, alcohol and drugs

do not bend down suddenly
do not get up suddenly after sitting or lying down
do not do anything that could be dangerous while you're dizzy, like driving, climbing a ladder or using heavy machinery
do not lie totally flat if you feel like things are spinning

you're worried about your dizziness or vertigo
it will not go away or it keeps coming back
you're finding it harder to hear
there's ringing or other sounds in your ears (tinnitus)
you have double vision, blurred vision or other changes in your eyesight
your face, arms or legs feel numb
you have other symptoms like fainting, headaches, feeling or being sick

If you have other symptoms, this might give you an idea of the cause. Do not self-diagnose. See a GP if you're worried.

Dizziness while you're ill with something else

Dizziness often goes away after you're treated for something else. For example:

Dizziness for no obvious reason

Dizziness symptoms	Possible causes
When standing or sitting up suddenly	Sudden drop in blood pressure (postural hypotension)
Feeling off-balance, losing some hearing, ringing or other sounds in your ears (tinnitus)	Inner-ear problems
Feeling off-balance or like things are spinning, feeling or being sick, sometimes after a cold or flu	Labyrinthitis
After starting new prescription medicine	Side effect of medicine
With symptoms like hearing loss, double vision, blurred vision, numb face, arms or legs	Decreased blood flow to the brain, possibly from clogged arteries (atherosclerosis)

Page last reviewed: 24 April 2020
Next review due: 24 April 2023

The doctor first asks questions about the person's symptoms and medical history. Doctors then do a physical examination. What they find during the history and physical examination often suggests a cause of the dizziness and the tests that may need to be done.

How long the dizziness has been occurring
Whether the person has fainted or fallen during an episode of dizziness
Whether the person has experienced conditions that are known to cause dizziness (such as bed rest or fluid loss)
Whether the person has a disorder (such as diabetes, Parkinson disease, or a cancer) that may cause dizziness
Whether the person is taking a drug (for example, an antihypertensive) that may cause dizziness

The doctor then does a physical examination. The person lies down for 5 minutes, and then the doctor measures the blood pressure and heart rate. Blood pressure and heart rate are measured again after the person stands or sits up for 1 minute and again after standing or sitting for 3 minutes. The doctor may do a digital rectal examination to see whether the person might have some bleeding in the digestive tract. A neurologic examination to test strength, sensation, reflexes, balance, and gait is important.

The most common causes of sudden dizziness—drugs, bed rest, and decreased blood volume—are usually obvious. In people with long-term symptoms, findings such as movement problems may indicate Parkinson disease. Numbness, tingling, or weakness may indicate a nervous system disorder.

If you’ve ever had that feeling of dizziness when standing up too fast, you may wonder what’s going on.

Depending on the cause, it may not be a long-term problem. But if you feel faint or actually lose consciousness, talk to your doctor as soon as possible.

“The feeling that you’re about to faint is called ‘presyncope,’” says Lia F. Crispell, certified registered nurse practitioner at ConvenientCare in Wilkes-Barre. “It happens when the brain doesn’t get enough blood, oxygen or glucose to function properly, even momentarily.”

The common causes of lightheadedness

People who experience presyncope usually dismiss it and move on with their day. “This isn’t a good idea since some of the causes can be serious. It’s always best to get a diagnosis from a doctor,” says Crispell. Especially because dizziness can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition.

Potential causes of presyncope include:

Orthostatic hypotension

Also called postural hypotension, this is the head rush you sometimes feel when you stand up. It can happen to anyone — and it tends to happen more often if you’re taking certain medications and as you age.

Heart arrhythmia

This condition (also known as an abnormal heart rate) is when your heart beats too fast, too slow or in a way that causes a sudden decrease in the blood supply to your brain. Any of these can make you feel faint.

Medications

Medicines prescribed for pain, heart conditions and high blood pressure can affect your circulatory system and — you guessed it — feeling dizzy. If it happens a lot, talk to your doctor about adjusting your dosage.

Dehydration

Not drinking enough fluids can cause nausea, weakness, dizziness, low blood pressure and fainting. The good news: Rehydrating will alleviate your symptoms quickly.

Anemia

Anemia is a lack of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin in your blood, which carry oxygen to your organs — including your brain. The hallmark of anemia is tiredness, but it can also cause you to feel faint and dizzy.

Autonomic neuropathy

This nerve disease disrupts electrical signals between your brain and heart, blood vessels and sweat glands. Feelings of faintness come from its effect on your heart rate and blood pressure.

Stress and panic attacks

Ever had an anxiety attack? You probably breathed more rapidly and deeply, both of which can lead to lightheadedness and dizziness.

What to do if you feel faint

When you get that lightheaded feeling, lie down or sit down and place your head between your knees.

“The most important thing to do if you feel faint is to get to a safe place,” says Crispell. “By doing so, if you do lose consciousness, you’ll avoid injury from falling or bumping your head.”

After the fainting spell passes, contact your healthcare provider as soon as possible for a checkup. A trained medical professional can pinpoint the exact cause of your presyncope.

Next steps:

Meet Lia Crispell, CRNP

Urgent care, primary care and emergency care: What's the difference?

Find a Geisinger ConvenientCare near you. Visit geisinger.org/urgent.

But other conditions, such as dehydration and diabetes, can also make you woozy, experts say

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Dizzy spells that occur after you've been standing for a few minutes might be an early warning sign of a serious neurological disease and an increased risk of premature death, a Harvard study has found.

For some people, this dizziness is caused by a gradual drop in blood pressure. And this "suggests the nervous system is failing and isn't maintaining blood pressure while you're standing," said lead author Dr. Christopher Gibbons, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The condition is called orthostatic hypotension, and between 29 percent and 64 percent of people suffering from this blood pressure decline died during the 10-year study, depending on how quickly they became dizzy. By comparison, only 9 percent of healthy people in the study's "control" group died.

But, this study's findings don't mean that everyone who becomes dizzy while standing needs to be alarmed. There are a number of other causes of dizziness, including diabetes, dehydration, an inner ear problem or blood pressure medication, Gibbons said.

Dr. Paul Wright, chair of neurology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., added, "Patients should not be scared that if their blood pressure drops due to medication or dehydration that they are at a high risk of mortality."

It's also important to note that the new study was designed to find an association between orthostatic hypotension and a risk of early death; it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Findings from the study were published online Sept. 23 in the journal Neurology.

Gibbons and his colleagues looked at both orthostatic hypotension (OH) and delayed orthostatic hypotension (DOH). OH is defined as a drop in blood pressure that occurs within three minutes of standing, while DOH is a blood pressure decline that takes place after three minutes of standing, according to background information in the study.

"This is a person who's been fine standing, and gradually gets worse and worse and worse, until they have to sit down," Gibbons said. "We're talking about people who feel like they're going to faint after standing in line at the grocery store or the Department of Motor Vehicles."

Orthostatic hypotension becomes more common as people get older, Gibbons said. By the time people are in their 60s or 70s, between 5 to 10 percent will have developed the condition, he added.

In the study, researchers reviewed the medical records of 230 people who underwent testing in 2002 and 2003 to see if their bodies were properly regulating their blood pressure and heart rate. Ten-year follow-up data was available for 165 of these people.

In the 10-year follow-up group, 48 started out with delayed orthostatic hypotension and 42 had been diagnosed with full-fledged OH, the study said.

The 10-year death rate for people who started out with delayed orthostatic hypotension was 29 percent, the study said. About 54 percent of participants with delayed orthostatic hypotension wound up progressing to OH within a decade, the investigators found.

Of the people who started out with OH, the 10-year death rate was 64 percent, according to the study.

Of those who had OH at the 10-year follow-up, 35 percent had developed a degenerative brain disease such as Parkinson's or dementia, the study said.

The results show that people who get dizzy even after long minutes of standing may be suffering very early signs of a neurological disorder, such as Parkinson's disease, Gibbons said. Orthostatic hypotension may serve as an early clue that something might be going haywire in a person's nervous system.

"Doctors need to be aware that a drop in blood pressure associated with dizziness could signify a serious problem, and additional evaluation may be necessary," he said.

However, Gibbons added that people who find themselves becoming dizzy while standing should not automatically assume that they're developing a degenerative brain disease.

The researchers suspect that blood pressure medication likely caused the dizziness that occurred in the people initially diagnosed with DOH who did not end up progressing to full OH, he said.

"By no means does it signify that they have [degenerative brain disease]," Gibbons said. "We don't think this is an enormous problem across the population."

Wright, who's also chair of neurology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., called the data "striking." But, he pointed out that the study involved a small number of patients that grew smaller during the follow-up period.

"A larger prospective study would be helpful" as a follow-up, he added.

"The data warrants a deeper and more extensive evaluation of this type of patient. It appears that consistent drops in blood pressure are not as benign as once thought," Wright said.