How to differentiate between hypoglycemia and orthostatic hypotension? I really want to get a better understanding of this. I've searched the forum but not found out anything on my specific query. I mean to do some online research too, though I am not sure where to start.

Lately I've sometimes had the classic light-headed-ness from "standing up too quickly", and what's more, it happens more often after exercise. Sounds like orthostatic hypotension, doesn't it?

(BTW, my blood pressure has always been on the slightly high side, but I've never had it measured in relaxed circumstances and I get very tense at the doctor's, so it might well be average really.)

The thing is, in my pre-LC life, I would also be prone to this light-headedness, just not quite as often. And I would connect this feeling to what I believed to be low blood sugar moments. The most severe blood sugar crashes were and are very recognisable to me; really nauseous, spacey, shaky etc, but the odd moment of light-headedness was more common and now I wonder if it was even related to blood glucose or if it was something else entirely. In the past I would tend to eat something sweet for it, and now, while LC-ing, when I feel the same light-headness, I still have the strong urge to eat sugar. Is this just because I conditioned myself in the past to expect sugar, or does low blood sugar actually ease this feeling in the short term?

My question(s), to summarise, is:

Could the light-headness that I have experienced all my life be orthostatic hypotension? Is there anything else it could be? And can orthostatic hypotension be caused by low blood glucose? Or were there two parallel things going on there that I confused and thought were related? And how much might mild dehydration contribute to all this?

Gez

Worse in the summer in the US South where it's pretty stinking hot. Given that mine ALWAYS accompanies changing my vertical orientation, I'm pretty sure it's OH and not Hypog.