What’s your BP reading like today? Is it too high or too low? It could well be too low without you knowing anything about it.
Plenty of people suffer from the condition known as hypotension or low blood pressure. It causes havoc. Those who suffer often feel unwell (although there are a few who don’t) and the typical symptoms include tiredness, dizziness, general ill sensations and depression or low mood.
Low blood pressure sometimes develops out of nowhere or it can run in families as a kind of genetic or inherited tendency. Sometimes it arises because of other ill health problems or an as yet undiagnosed disease.
One of the big problems related to a low BP problem is that it can be very hard to find a good and effective treatment. Despite the fact that it’s very common there’s not much written about it and even an online search doesn’t turn up a great deal of helpful stuff. Yes, you can try medication to raise the BP levels but they don’t always work and they can bring severe side effects at times. Most people who have it either just try to cope the best they can – or they invest in a range of tempting but ineffective alternative therapy products.
Even doctors don’t seem very interested in the issue and compared to high BP that’s rather odd really. Paradoxically, most of those who have hypertension do not have any symptoms while most of those with low BP feel awful most days.
Now, one of the issues lies in how to make the diagnosis and this is where confusion often arises. It’s partly about how to define what low blood pressure actually is. The textbooks say it relates to a reading less than 90 systolic and less than 60 diastolic – or less than 90 / 60 to put it another way. This is only partly true however because some people at this level will feel entirely healthy and well. Super fit athletes are a good example of this – they have a slow resting heart rate and a very low resting BP level. This simply shows how well conditioned their heart is. The message is that it’s not enough to simply have low readings, they only count for something if you have symptoms to go with it.
If you do have symptomatic low BP then you could expect to feel low in mood, low in energy, light headed and dizzy. A few sufferers also get sweats, weakness, low motivation and a sense of general ill health. The lucky ones get only one or two of these problems – the unlucky ones get them all.
You could write a whole book chapter about the causes of low blood pressure but included in the list of common ones would be things like low blood red cell counts, medication adverse effects, abnormal hormone levels or imbalance, serious blood stream infection or blood poisoning, diabetes, nerve damage and heart failure or heart disease in general. That’s a pretty scary list I’m sure you’ll agree.
Really however the take home message here should be not to panic. If you check your BP and find it low then pop along to your doctor for a check over and a chat. It’s almost certain that you’ll turn out to be completely normal but don’t delay your visit. If there is something wrong then the quicker it’s detected the quicker you’ll be well again.
Gordon Cameron is a physician in Edinburgh Scotland. He has a special interest in low blood pressure symptoms and inlow blood pressure treatment. You can read more at http://www.bloodpressurehigh.com.
