



Having a cup of coffee or another source of caffeine before a meal may help, too. Common NSAIDs include ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve). You may also be able to keep your blood pressure up after a meal if you take a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) before a meal. However, you should be aware that your blood pressure may drop once you stop walking. Walking after a meal may also help counteract a decrease in blood pressure. Eating more frequent, but smaller, low-carb meals throughout the day may also help. If you regularly notice symptoms after high-carbohydrate meals, consider reducing your carbohydrate intake. If you’ve been experiencing postprandial hypotension, track what you’re eating. Insulin is a hormone that helps cells absorb glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream for use as energy. Some health experts believe that the insulin release that follows high-carbohydrate meals may interfere with the autonomic nervous system in some people, leading to hypotension. If the problem isn’t related to medications, a few lifestyle changes may help. Taking smaller doses more frequently during the day may also be an option, but you should discuss any changes in your medication timing or dosage with your physician before experimenting on your own. By avoiding anti-hypertensive medications before eating, you may reduce your risk for a post-meal drop in blood pressure. If you take blood pressure-lowering medications, your doctor may advise you adjust the timing of your dose. Treating and managing postprandial hypotension echocardiogram to evaluate the heart’s structure and function.electrocardiogram to look for heart rhythm problems.blood test to check for anemia or low blood sugar.Other tests may be administered to rule other possible causes of your blood pressure changes. Your doctor may also diagnose postprandial hypotension if your pre-meal systolic blood pressure was a least 100 mm Hg and you have a systolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg within two hours of a meal. Postprandial hypotension may be diagnosed if you experience a drop in your systolic blood pressure of at least 20 mm Hg within two hours of eating a meal. In about 70 percent of people with postprandial hypotension, blood pressure drops within 30 to 60 minutes following a meal. Pressures may be taken at several intervals following the meal, starting at 15 minutes and ending at around 2 hours after eating. Your doctor should try to get a baseline pre-meal blood pressure reading and then a postprandial reading to confirm your home checks. If you’ve been tracking your blood pressure with a home monitor, show your doctor the readings you have collected, noting when pressures were recorded after meals. Your doctor will want to review your medical history and symptoms. Sometimes doctors are unable to determine an underlying cause for postprandial hypotension. However, you can develop postprandial hypotension even if you don’t have a condition that affects the autonomic nervous system. This will cause a sudden, but temporary, drop in blood pressure.Īnother possible cause of postprandial hypotension is related to a fast absorption of glucose, or sugar, and may explain the higher risk for the condition in patients with diabetes. However, as a result of your intestine’s extra demand for blood during digestion, blood flow to other parts of the body will decrease. If you have a medical condition that affects your autonomic nervous system, your heart rate may not increase, and certain arteries may not constrict. These changes in your blood vessels and heart rate are managed by your autonomic nervous system, which also controls many other body processes without you having to think about them. That, in turn, increases your blood pressure. When your arteries narrow, the pressure of blood flow against artery walls increases. Normally, your heart rate would increase while your arteries that are supplying blood to areas other than your intestines would constrict. As you digest a meal, your intestine requires additional blood flow to work properly.
