How does body position affect blood pressure?

1 Answer
Jul 8, 2017

Blood pressure (BP) tends to drop in the standing position compared with the sitting, supine and supine with crossed legs.

Explanation:

All sorts of conditions can have an impact on BP reading. Diseases, stress, weight and even posture can impact BP levels.

Our heart is a pump and it takes less work to pump blood to our brain when we are lying down. This is because our head is about the same level as our heart. When we sit, our head is a lot higher than our heart. This means that he heart has to pump much harder to get blood to our brain, so as a result BP is higher.

In most cases BP is taken while a person is sitting down with the arm dropping onto a table. BP is commonly measured in the seated or supine position, however the two positions give different measurement values. Systolic and diastolic BP is usually highest in supine position when compared to other positions.