JOIN USOften feel light-headed and woozy when you get out of your seat? Beware, you may have a higher risk of developing heart failure, scientists say.
According to researchers, dizzy spells experienced after standing up suddenly are caused by a rapid drop in blood pressure known as orthostatic hypotension. Now a team at the University of North Carolina found that people who experienced the condition frequently were about 54 per cent more likely to develop heart failure than those who didn’t, the Daily Mail reported.
The risk still stood at 34 per cent when researchers took account of those who also suffered from high blood pressure. And it was most pronounced in those aged between 44 and 55 years, according to the researchers. To reach their results, published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, the team measured the blood pressure of 12,000 patients when they were lying down and shortly after they stood up.
They followed-up an average 17.5 years later. Heart failure was taken from hospital admission records or death certificates. About 11 per cent of patients who developed heart failure had orthostatic hypotension at the start of the study compared to only four per cent of those who did not develop heart failure. Dr Christine DeLong Jones, who led the research, said: “Orthostatic hypotension appears to be related to the development of heart failure. Hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease are already known to contribute to a person’s risk of developing heart failure.”