Medical Keywords - Everything you need to know about health.

Lower Blood Pressure

There is so much talk about high blood pressure and how to lower blood pressure but not as much is said about low blood pressure, which is also referred to as "hypotension." It is important to note that a person's blood pressure varies with a few different factors, which include age, sex and what a person is doing at the time. For example a person working out in the gym or running up a stairs is going to have a higher blood pressure reading than someone who is sitting in a chair reading a book or in bed asleep. For reasons unknown, some individuals simply have lower blood pressure than the norm, which is approximately 120/80 (which means a systolic of 129 mmHg the top number, and a diastolic of 80 mmHg which is the bottom number). Having a lower blood pressure than the average is not considered a health problem unless it is accompanied by symptoms such as for example, fainting or dizziness. If these symptoms occur and especially if they occur with frequency, a doctor should be consulted.

When is lower blood pressure too low for one's health? When an individual's regular or "baseline" blood pressure drops 30 mmHg or even more then this is too low and hypotension is the result. When a lower blood pressure level drops this low often the amount of blood reaching the brain, heart and all other vital organs is not enough to support the normal functioning of the body. When not enough blood is finding its way to the brain this can cause fainting, dizziness or even a complete lack of consciousness.

A few different things cause lower blood pressure to the point of hypotension. The most common reasons for hypotension include shock; stress or a physical or emotionally traumatic experience; an allergic reaction to medication; dehydration; and anaphylaxis (which means an allergic reaction that can be fatal such as an allergy to peanuts, bees or shellfish. This is sometimes also called anaphylactic shock or an anaphylactic response). Two other common causes for hypotension to take place include when a person either sits up or stands up too quickly and becomes dizzy (which is called orthostatic hypotension) and when the vagus nerve that maintains the rate at which the heart beats is stimulated (this is known as vasovagal syncope or in layman's terms, fainting and in this case blood has had time to pool in the leg areas). Drinking too much alcohol as well as a variety of kinds of medication used to treat high blood pressure can cause lower blood pressure to the point where hypotension takes place.