blood pressure drops when they stood up from sitting.
But more importantly, their symptoms were eased, said senior researcher Dr. Satish Raj, a professor of cardiac sciences at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine.
“We showed that people feel better, which is what they care about,” Raj says.
The two counter-maneuvers Raj and his colleagues tested are similar but different. One involves “pre-activation” of the thigh muscles: While still seated, the person raises the knees, one at a time, toward the trunk — similar to a march. That’s done for 30 seconds before standing up.
The other maneuver is done for 30 seconds right after standing. It involves crossing one leg in front of the other and tensing the lower-body muscles.
For the study, all 22 women were observed under three sit-to-stand conditions: In one, they sat for 10 minutes then simply stood up; in the other two, they sat for the same amount of time but performed one of the counter-maneuvers.
On average, Raj’s team found, both tactics lessened the women’s blood pressure drops after standing, and that translated into fewer symptoms.
How do the maneuvers help?
The research suggests that the pre-activation maneuver helps by boosting a person’s cardiac output, or the amount of blood the heart pumps into the circulatory system per minute. The tensing tactic, meanwhile, seems to work by compressing the lower-body muscles and encouraging blood flow back to the heart.
While both maneuvers worked, Raj says he is partial to the muscle pre-activation strategy, since it’s done before standing.
“The challenge is, you have to remember to do it before you get up,” he notes. But if memory fails, Raj adds, there’s always the muscle-tensing strategy for backup.
The study participants were all assessed for signs that they truly had IOH — including a history of symptoms that struck