High blood pressure is rampant but what about low blood pressure?

23 May, 2012

Low blood pressure is also called hypotension in medical terminology. It effects many people globally, people don't realize the effect of it, and think that it is an one-off the case of feeling ill. Severe low blood pressure can cause serious problems, which can cause blockage of oxygen and vital nutrients to the brain.

THE BLOOD is pumped by the heart around the body continuously, where the oxygenated blood is pumped into the body and the de-oxygenated blood is pumped towards the lungs. The pumping of blood generates some pressure on the walls of the blood vessels and this pressure is called blood pressure. The pressure is high when the oxygenated blood is just pumped out from the heart through aorta (largest artery) and the pressure keeps on decreasing when it comes to the capillaries (smaller blood vessels).

The blood pressure is measured in two different types of pressures, namely systolic and diastolic. Systolic pressure is the moment of maximum force of contraction by heart, it occurs when left ventricle of the heart contracts. Diastolic pressure is the pressure between heartbeats, when the heart is resting. The normal reading should be 120/80, if the reading is around 90/60 or less than this, then you are at a risk of hypotension.

The different kinds of hypotensions are postural hypotension, postprandial hypotension and neurally mediated hypotension. Postural hypotension is caused by a sudden drop in blood pressure on standing, and it mostly effects older adults above 65 years of age. Our body normally has the mechanism to compensate it, but a failure in this mechanism causes postural hypotension. Young individuals sometimes may suffer from this, if they sit cross-legged for a long time. Postprandial hypotension is a sudden drop in blood pressure after eating, this usually occurs when our body fails to supply the required amount of blood to the digestive tract. Neurally mediated hypotension is common in younger generation because of the wrong communication between the heart and the brain.

Generally, people suffering from this problem do not show any symptoms, if it is not severe, and they don't need any medication. But if the blood pressure is very low then the patient will need medical attention. The most common symptoms of low blood pressure are dizziness, depression, nausea, fatigue, weakness, blurred vision, pale skin, and palpitation etc. The symptoms of low blood pressure are not common in all the individuals.

There are some standard procedures for the treatment of low blood pressure by doctors, the treatment will depend on the cause of hypotension. If dehydration is the factor then the doctor will use fluids, electrolytes and minerals. If it is due to blood loss then the treatment procedure should involve stopping the blood loss, and this can be done through blood transfusion. There are many other types of treatments for low blood pressure, which the doctor will be using depending on your problem.