Do you know that it has been scientifically proven that people with low blood pressure live longer. But the stress of living makes it impossible to attain. That is why three – quarters of the world population suffers from essential hypertension as a result of the toils or daily living. While one-quarter suffers from low blood pressure. In spite of its advantages low blood pressure is also a serious illness.
Yes, low blood pressure or hypotension is blood pressure that is low enough to cause symptoms, such as dizziness and fainting. Blood pressure must be high enough to deliver oxygen and nutrition to all cells in the body, and remove waste products from them.
But if the blood pressure is too high, it can rupture a blood vessel and cause bleeding in the brain leading to hemorrhagic stroke or other complications.
If the blood pressure is too low, the blood cannot supply enough oxygen and nutrients to the cells, so as to properly remove wastes from them.
However, healthy people with low normal blood pressure at rest, tend to live longer.
What are causes of low blood pressure?
Abnormal heart rhythms.
Heart muscle damage, loss or malfunction.
Heart valve disorders.
Pulmonary embolus.
Excessive bleeding.
Diarrhea.
Excessive sweating.
Excessive urination.
Septic shock ie shock after massive infection.
Exposure to heat.
Vasodilator drugs – nitrates, calcium blockers.
Some local drugs and foods are also known to lead to low blood pressure.
Symptoms of low blood pressure.
Dizziness or light headedness may precede fainting, especially when a person is standing. After a person falls, the blood pressure increases, partly because the person is lying down and often because the cause of the fainting has passed. Getting up too quickly may cause the person to faint again.
When the cause of low blood pressure is an abnormal heart rhythm, fainting begins and ends suddenly. Sometimes the person experiences palpitation – an awareness of the heart beating, just before fainting.
When a person sits up or stands too quickly and faints it is called orthostatic fainting. So people with low blood pressure should avoid that.
Parade ground syncope – this fainting occurs when a person stands still for a long time on a hot day, because the leg muscles are not being used, they do not push blood up towards the heart : therefore, blood pools in the leg veins, and blood pressure falls.
Vasovagal syncope – this may occur when a person is sitting or standing and is often preceded by nausea, weakness, yawning, blurring of vision, and sweating. The person ghostly pale, and the pulse becomes very slow, and the person faints.
Fainting that begins gradually with warning symptoms and also disappears gradually, suggest changes in blood chemistry, such as decreased level of blood sugar (hypoglycemia) or decreased level of carbon dioxide (hypocapnia) in the blood, caused by hyperventilation. Hypocapnia is often preceded by a pins-and-needles” sensation and chest discomfort.
Hysterical fainting is not a true faint. The person only appears to be unconscious, but does not have a heart rate or blood pressure abnormality.
Management of low blood pressure.
Usually lying flat is all that is needed for a person to regain consciousness.
Raising the legs can speed up recovery by increasing blood flow to the heart and brain.
If the person sits up too rapidly or is propped up or carried in an upright position another fainting may occur.
In young people who do not have heart disease, fainting usually is not serious, and extensive diagnostic investigations and treatment are not necessary.
However in older people, fainting may result from several interrelated problems – which your doctor will investigate.
Always be medically guided.
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