Feeling dizzy when you stand up? Try these two leg movements

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Do you ever feel dizzy and light-headed when you stand up? Researchers in Calgary say the've found two simple leg maneuvers that can help prevent you from feeling unsteady on your feet.

A study published in the Heart Rhythm Journal outlines two techniques that help eliminate the feelings associated with initial orthostatic hypotension (IOH), a condition that causes the blood pressure to drop immediately upon standing.

A group of 22 women, who commonly experience IOH, took part in the study conducted at the University of Calgary’s Libin Cardiovascular Institute. During the study, researchers discovered the symptoms of IOH were either less severe or completely gone after participants performed either one of the two leg maneuvers.

What is initial orthostatic hypotension?

Initial orthostatic hypotension occurs when a person experiences a large drop in blood pressure within 15 seconds of standing up after they had been lying down or sitting for a prolonged period-of-time.

IOH is short-lived and blood pressure typically recovers within one minute, according to research published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

During an IOH episode, a person becomes light-headed, feels dizzy and on some occasions, may faint as a result. While some people may experience these symptoms occasionally, for others it happens multiple times a day to a point where it negatively impacts their life.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Satish Raj, has treated many patients who say the condition is impacting their quality of life.

“I have had young mothers come to me from out of province because they’re concerned with dropping their babies,” the professor of cardiac science at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute and the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine tells Yahoo Canada. “They’re concerned they’re going to pass out.”

While someone can experience IOH at any age, Raj says he commonly sees it in young, otherwise healthy people.

IOH is not a very well-studied condition and any information available online can be limiting. People who suffer from IOH may be unaware of what they can do to help themselves feel better, which is Raj is eager to spread awareness about the study's techniques.

How do you eliminate IOH symptoms?

In order take part in the study, participants were required to meet certain criteria, including having more than four episodes of presyncope (the feeling you’re going to faint) or syncope (fainting) per month.

On the day of the study, the women were asked to sit and stand as per normal. Next, they were told to perform one of the two techniques.

“The exact mechanisms of these two maneuvers are a little bit different physiologically, but the net result is that they both have a similar result in blunting that drop in blood pressure,” Raj explains.

The first technique involves doing knee lifts as a preventative maneuver that activates the thigh muscle, for 30 to 40 seconds before standing up.

The second technique is considered a rescue maneuver. It’s performed after you stand up and requires you to cross your legs and clench from your buttocks downward for 30 seconds or until the reaction passes.

“The approach I recommend to patients is to try to prevent the spells and if it’s still not successful, if symptoms persist, then use the tensing to try and make yourself feel better,” Raj adds.

Aside from lessening or eliminating symptoms of IOH altogether, the maneuvers require no drugs, no cost and can be done anywhere. A YouTube video of the maneuvers created by Nasia Sheikh, a University of Calgary master’s student who Raj says did majority of the work for the study, is available online.

Researchers didn’t set out for the study to just focus on female participants, but Raj says women were the only ones who volunteered.

Even so, the medical director of the Calgary Autonomic Investigation and Management Clinic sees no reason why the movements wouldn’t work just as well for men.

What other treatments are available for IOH?

According to the Libin Cardiovascular Institute, there are no approved medications for IOH.

Doctors may recommend certain lifestyle changes, such as increasing water and dietary salt intake and wearing waist-high compression stockings.

Raj is hopeful that these new maneuvers will help make it so that people who frequently experience dizziness and lightheadedness don’t need to make those changes or seek professional help.

However, Raj cautions that anyone who experiences prolonged dizziness or lightheadedness after standing should visit their doctor.

"There are different disorders that it could be that have different treatments and approaches,” Raj advises.

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