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Senior Member
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Shenandoah Mountains, VA
Posts: 1,250
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Shenandoah Mountains, VA
Posts: 1,250
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If the dizziness has been confirmed as resulting from the neuropathy,then it would be in relation to autonomic neuropathy. This causes BP to drop upon standing and heart rate to increase (in compensation to the lower BP) or the heart rate to take off on it's own and climb quite high (SVT-superventricular tachycardia). The heart rate can also drop too low in some cases (which can cause dizziness).
Your dizziness would most likely be from the drops in BP. There are a couple medications to help increase your BP (Florinef and Midodrine), but there are also simple life-style changes you can do to help your symptoms. Drinking extra water/fluids increases volume in your vessels and therefore increases BP. When you get dizzy, simply sit down!! Your BP will start to adjust once you are seated. Now of course, you can't stay seated all the time, so drink some fluid while sitting and that may help some when you get back up. The hardest part is standing STILL...this allows the Blood to follow gravity and head straight to the ankle and pool there. Moving around will help to contract the muscles in your legs to push that blood back up into the system, where it needs to be. If you find the blood pooling often, then compression stockings may be helpful also. They are tight fitting stockings to help compress the vessels in the legs to get the blood back up into the system and increase the BP.
It's ALL about getting your BP to stay within a normal range even when you are standing. If your BP drops more then 20 points systolic when you stand, then you likely have some autonomic neuropathy. If after trying the various things mentioned above, and you still have problems, then you should consider Midodrine 3 times a day and then if still not resolved, consider adding Florinef. These medications needs to be prescribed under the guidance of a cardiologist. It can take a couple months to find the right combination/dose that works best for you, but they are fairly effective in relieving you of the dizziness .
Hope this was helpful.
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