Postprandial hypotension: lessons from Sir Roger Bannister's textbook

As well as being the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes, the late Sir Roger Bannister also left a legacy in medicine, with a primary interest in the autonomic nervous system. In 2005, he was presented with the American Academy of Neurology's first ‘lifetime achievement’ award for his work on autonomic disorders. His research is said to have ensured that the autonomic nervous system is ‘no longer a neglected area of medicine, lying forgotten between neurology, cardiology and general medicine’ (Bannister, 2014).

In 2013, Bannister worked in partnership with Christopher Mathias, a professor of neurovascular medicine, to publish the fifth edition of their textbook, Autonomic Failure (Mathias and Bannister, 2013), with comprehensive chapters on subjects such as orthostatic hypotension, cardiac syncope and postprandial hypotension (PPH). After an introduction to the life and work of Sir Roger Bannister himself, each of these clinical conditions has formed a part of this quarterly series on neurocardiology. This fourth and final article focuses on PPH, a fall in blood pressure occurring within 2 hours of eating.