Low blood pressure is given the medical term “Hypotension” (as opposed to hypertension which is high blood pressure). Low blood pressure occurs when the pressure in the blood vessels falls below normal limits. Although different sources have different criteria for low blood pressure, we can assume that anything below 90/60 is low.

It is very difficult to define exactly what constitutes low blood pressure, since everyone is different. One person may suffer symptoms at 90/60 while another is totally fine at blood pressures which theoretically should have them on their back.

If you have no symptoms there is no reason for concern. Only when blood pressure drops below the level required by your body and cells, is there a real problem. When this happens, you get symptoms.

Symptoms of low blood pressure

• Dizziness
• Lightheadedness
• Fainting

Under severe low pressure, symptoms can include chest pains. Also, without the necessary pressure in the blood, the kidneys cannot filter out the toxins in your blood, and there will be an increase in blood levels of urea and creatine.

Causes of Low Blood Pressure

Low blood pressure can have a variety of causes including:

• Medication, including high blood pressure medicine, and medication for coronary heart disease.
• Anti-anxiety, and anti-depressant drugs.
• Diuretics
• Alcohol
• Dehydration – common when someone has diarrhea and-or vomiting. It is important to drink plenty of fluids (plain water works best) if you are ill with these.
• Slow heart beat
• Inflammation of organs in the body, e.g. acute pancreatitis
• Heart disease – when the walls of the heart become weakened and can no longer pump with the required force.

Should you consult a doctor?

Yes if:

• You lose consciousness when you stand up
• You constantly feel weak, light headed or tired.

Facts on low blood pressure

In younger people, low blood pressure can be a sign of chronic fatigue syndrome.

In older people, low blood pressure can indicate heart disease.

Young women (below 40) may find their blood pressure drops below 90/60 during:

• pregnancy
• hot weather
• dieting

Treatment for Low Blood Pressure

Since any treatment will depend on the cause of your low blood pressure, you must consult your doctor. It may be that some component of your lifestyle has caused the low blood pressure, and simple changes to that can restore your blood pressure to normal.

Unfortunately, there are often no symptoms of high blood pressure – which is why it is often called the “silent killer”.

You will often find out you suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension) on a routine visit to the doctor, or when going to see the doctor about another complaint (which may be as a direct result of your high blood pressure).

It is possible that you might suffer from headaches, nausea, dizziness or blurred vision, but many people will not even experience these symptoms.

High blood pressure puts your cardiovascular system under enormous strain, which can result in serious health problems, even death. High blood pressure is often responsible for heart attacks, strokes, and aneurysms.

When you suffer from high blood pressure, the capilliaries in your body can be easily damaged because of the pressure, meaning organs such as the eye and kidneys can be easily damaged.

How to tell if you have high blood pressure

There is only one way to be certain. Get it measured.

You can go to your doctor, or get a home blood pressure monitor and measure it yourself. Because of a syndrome called White Coat Syndrome, I personally prefer to measure mine myself.

There are various drugs and medications for high blood pressure treatment, though these can often have undesirable side-effects.

There are also natural ways you can reduce your blood pressure as well, including changing your diet, increasing exercise, giving up smoking and losing weight. In fact, I personally reduced my blood pressure to normal using a combination of these “natural methods”. You should also be aware that changes to your exercise and diet can be responsible for more than just lowering your blood pressure. Being more careful with the food you eat and doing a little more exercise can help reduce factors such as stress, heart disease, cholesterol, arthritis and prevent onset of diabetes.

Don’t risk being the next victim of the silent killer.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is often called the silent killer, due to the fact that there are few, if any symptoms. People go about their daily lives unaware of the time-bomb ticking away inside them.

It is vitally important that you keep checks on your blood pressure, and if high, seek medical help. While blood pressure medications can help reduce a dangerously high blood pressure, they often do have side-effects. In my own case, I wanted to find ways to help control my blood pressure naturally, and within a couple of months, my blood pressure was largely under control. The following tips are for information only. Please consult your doctor if you have high blood pressure.

Tips for controlling blood pressure

• Reduce alcohol intake if you drink more than three alcoholic beverages a day. Small amounts of alcohol don’t seem to affect blood pressure in the same way, but heavy drinkers will benefit from reducing alcohol intake.
• Drink plenty of fresh water – your body is made up of a high percentage of water. If you don’t drink enough, your body tries to hold onto it, causing bloating. By drinking water regularly throughout the day, your body can detoxify your body. Your urine can be a good gauge to whether you are drinking enough water. The darker it is, the more dehydrated you are.
• Increase levels of activity – this will exercise your heart. Studies regularly show that increased exercise will help lower blood pressure.
• Lose weight if you need to – if you are over-weight, your heart has to work harder to pump blood around your body. Losing weight can reduce blood pressure, and you’ll feel a lot better as well.
• Reduce salt intake – your body does require salt, but in most cases, it can be supplied in sufficient doses by eating a balanced diet. Foods contain salt, so you don’t need to add extra. Since sodium (a component of salt) is involved in regulating body fluids, it can play a role in high blood pressure. If you eat canned products, read the labels. Look for food sources low in sodium.
• Avoid food high in fat or cholesterol.
• Stop smoking – nicotine has been shown to constrict blood vessels (making them narrower), raising the pressure in the vessels.
• Reduce Caffeine intake – My morning coffees are an important part of my daily routine, but I found that by having one caffeine coffee, and then switching to decaffeine coffee for the rest of the morning, I could have the best of both worlds, while helping to reduce my blood pressure.

Prior to following these tips, my blood pressure regularly reached 140/90 and even 140/100. After two months of following these tips, my blood pressure was normal, and often as far down as 115/68. These tips were responsible for controlling my high blood pressure, and meant that I could avoid going onto drugs. If you decide to try the natural route, please do consult your doctor first. The above information does not constitute medical advise.

Glossary of terms related to hypertension / high blood pressure.

Arterial Hypertension – also just called “hypertension”, refers to a condition where blood pressure is elevated above normal. Normal is usually quoted as below 120/80.

White coat syndrome – a condition where an individual has elevated blood pressure at the doctors office, yet has much reduced / normal blood pressure at home.

Hypertensive emergency – a severe hypertension that impairs proper functioning of the body’s organs. Requires medical treatment to aggressively lower blood pressure.

Exercise hypertension – is a rise in blood pressure in response to exercise. This does not affect everybody, and in healthy individuals, we would expect to see a small drop in blood pressure during exercise due to improved blood flow.

Malignant hypertension – chronic high blood pressure (> 240/120) resulting in organ damage, especially the eyes, kidneys, brain and lungs. Malignant hypertension is accompanied by swelling of the optic disk.

Pulmonary hypertension – is an increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary artery (carrying blood from the heart to the lungs) or vessels in the lungs. The right side of the heart is put under pressure, and one of the common symptoms is shortness of breath and chest pains during exercise.

Renovascular hypertension – also called “renal hypertension” refers to the kidneys. This is caused by a narrowing of the renal arteries (carrying blood to the kidneys), reducing blood flow to the kidneys, which respond by sending out signals to the body to raise blood pressure. Renal hypertension is a secondary form of hypertension (which just means that we know why it happens).

Systolic pressure – the peak pressure in your circulatory system when the heart contracts. When the heart beats, blood is forced out into the aorta, increasing the pressure.

Diastolic pressure – The lowest pressure in your circulatory system, which occurs during the resting stage of the cardiac cycle (heart is resting between beats).

High blood pressure is a problem for many people, but can be especially dangerous when a woman is pregnant, and can lead to life-threatening problems. High blood pressure affects all organs in the body, but when you are pregnant, you have an extra organ – the placenta, which connects you to your baby, so fetal problems can arise.

What is pre-eclampsia?

Pre-eclampsia is also called Toxemia and is a complex disorder.

Preeclampsia definition (source: Medical Terms and Definitions Website): A condition characterized by a sharp rise in blood pressure during the third trimester of pregnancy. High blood pressure may be accompanied by edema (swelling), and kidney problems, as evidenced by protein in the urine. Although preeclampsia is relatively common, occurring in about 5 percent of all pregnancies and more frequently in first pregnancies, it can be a sign of serious problems. In some cases, untreated preeclampsia can progress to eclampsia, a life-threatening situation for both mother and baby.

Who is at most risk?

• First pregnancy
• Women who suffered from high blood pressure before they got pregnant.
• Overweight women.
• Women under 20 or over 40.
• Those who have suffered pre-eclampsia in a previous pregnancy, or if your mother or sister suffered pre-eclampsia.
• Women with medical history of diabetes, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
• Multiple pregnancy

From week 20 onwards in your pregnancy, a rise in blood pressure can indicate pre-eclampsia, and you should contact your doctor immediately. The doctor will take your blood pressure and likely do tests including urine analysis to look for protein.

What are the risks?

Preeclampsia can cause low birth weight and other problems for your baby because it can stop the baby getting enough air or food through the placenta. Preeclampsia causes your blood vessels to constrict (getting smaller), which reduces the flow to the placenta and other organs of your body.

Preeclampsia can develop into eclampsia – which can be very serious. It is characterised by convulsions, and can lead to disability or death.

In a few cases, preeclampsia will develop into something called HELLP syndrome (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets). Women who develop HELLP syndrome usually have to deliver early to prevent serious complications.

What are the signs/symptoms of preeclampsia?

Symptoms include:

• Swelling in hands, feet and ankles.
• Puffiness around the eyes.
• Vision problems (light sensitive, blurred etc).
• Nausea and vomiting
• Tender upper abdomen, or pain.
• Weight gain

Some symptoms appear very much like normal pregnancy complaints, so do get checked up if in doubt.

The syndrome is named after the main characteristics of the disease, namely Hemolysis (break down of red blood cells), Elevated Liver enzymes, which can cause liver damage, and Low Platelet count (platelets are involved in blood clotting).

What are the symptoms of HELLP Syndrome?

Symptoms include:

• a gradual onset of headaches
• weakness & fatigue
• blurred vision
• nausea & vomiting
• pain around the upper abdomen
• jaundice
• diarrhea
• tingling in the extremities

One of the problems in diagnosing HELLP, is that not every woman exhibits all of these symptoms, so any woman showing a mixture of symptoms, should be evaluated for HELLP. Unfortunately, HELLP syndrome is often disdiagnosed in the early stages, increasing the risks of liver failure and death. If you are pregnant, and suffering from any of the above symptoms, please consult your doctor as soon as possible.

How is HELLP Syndrome Diagnosed?

Diagnosing HELLP syndrome may include:

• Full physical examination
• blood pressure measurement
• red blood cell count
• bilirubin level
• liver function tests
• platelet count
• urine tests for protein

Platelet counts are considered good indicators of HELLP severity (the Mississippi classification system). Class I is the most severe, with less than 50 million/l Class II is between 50 – 100 million/l Class III is greater than 100 million/l

How is HELLP Syndrome Treated?

Some medications have been looked at for treating HELLP, but the results of tests are inconclusive. Those treatments include:

• Magnesium sulphate which is throught to reduce the risk of seizures and slow the progress of eclampsia.
• fresh frozen plasma
• blood transfusion to treat anaemia.
• In mild cases, corticosteroids and antihypertensives may be sufficient.
• Intravenous fluids.

Cesarean delivery of the baby is the only effective treatment, even if it the baby is premature. The decision is usually made early because of deteriorating health (and liver function) of the mother becomes a threat to both moth and baby.

Complications of HELLP syndrome

Failure to effectively treat HELLP can lead to liver damage, and even death. Please consult your doctor if you have any of the symptoms listed above.

The pressure of your blood depends on a number of factors including:

• the force created by your heart pumping blood into your arteries
• the volume of your blood
• the resistance your blood encounters as it moves through your blood vessels.

You body needs to make sure that there is sufficient pressure to push the blood into all of the capillaries around your body. Capillaries are the smallest blood vessels in your body, and ensure that all cells in your body receive nutrients they require to live.

Maintaining normal blood pressure is delicately balanced. Too high, and your heart and blood vessels are put under strain. Too low and the low blood pressure means some cells may not get the nutrients they require.

High blood pressure is often called the “Silent Killer” since there are often no symptoms. For this reason, it is important you get your blood pressure checked regularly.

Blood pressure readings can be taken by your doctor using a sphygmomanometer and stethoscope, or at home using a blood pressure monitor (the easiest ones to use are digital monitors). The home monitors generally come in two forms. One places a cuff around your wrist, while the other places a cuff around your upper arm (level with your heart). I personally have tried both types and found the most accurate one to be the upper arm cuff.

The blood pressure “numbers”

The blood pressure reading is two numbers. These are the two pressures of your blood at varying stages of your heart beat cycle:

The larger number is the systolic pressure, the lower number is the diastolic pressure.

Systolic pressure is the blood pressure being pumped into the aorta when the heart beats.

Diastolic pressure is the blood pressure in the arteries when the heart relaxes between beats.

Blood pressure does vary with age, sex and health, but in general, a healthy blood pressure is 120/80, or 120 over 80.

This means that systolic blood pressure is 120 mmHg, and the diastolic blood pressure is 80 mmHg.

Your blood pressure can actually tell a doctor a lot about the health of your heart and blood vessels. High blood pressure means that your heart is having to work harder to push your blood to all the cells in your body.

This can happen if e.g. you have narrowing of the arteries, since this narrowing increases the resistance of your blood vessels, and requires more pressure to get the blood through.

High blood pressure is also called hypertension, and can have serious consequences if not treated. e.g. high blood pressure can weaken the artery walls, and lead to rupture. If this happens in the brain, it can lead to a stroke.

There are a wide range of medicines and medications available to treat high blood pressure, and some alternative therapies such as acupuncture may also help, but you can also take immediate steps by looking at your diet and increasing your daily exercise (walking is a great exercise).

We explore some of the dietary considerations on this site, but please do consult a doctor before changing your diet or undertaking an exercise program.