Low blood pressure! Any good advize??

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

I used to have a normal blood pressure. But since a few weeks I was tired all the time, and everyday I had a weird kind of headake on the backside of my head. Ct-scan showed that everything is okay, and also my bloodtests came back normal.
But I seem to have a low blood pressure. I don't know how it is measured elsewhere; but here they say I have 10 against 6.
The doc prescribed me Effortil, but after 2 weeks, there is no change.
Anybody has any good advize on how to treat this? mI also have no idea what has caused this: maybe because I lost nearly 9 kg since Aprl?:confused:

[Catty1]

I found this, and am reaching for my caculator :D :


To answer your questions in order:

1) 92/60 mm Hg would be 12.26/8 kPa.
2) 16/9 kPa would be 120/67.5 mm Hg.
3) Hg is the chemical symbol for Mercury.

You see, the United States uses metric units for blood pressure. The units are in mm of mercury displacement. That is, the amount of pressure necessary to raise a column of mercury so many millimeters. The "European" units that you are looking for are another SI unit, the Kilopascal.

The reason for the switch to different units has a number of drivers, including the fact that mercury is a non-degradable, bioaccumable toxic substance, which is a serious threat to marine biology and there is mounting pressure from environmentalists to have it banned from use in hospitals.

To convert mm Hg into kilopascals divide by 7.5. To convert Kilopascals to mm Hg, multiply by 7.5

Your BP is 75 over 45 - if I did the math right.

Here's some info I found, very basic:

http://www.onehealthylifestyle.com/physical-health/diseases/blood-pressure.aspx

What about low blood pressure?

Low blood pressure can be dangerous when the drop in pressure occurs suddenly. Certain symptoms can also be a cause for concern when they accompany the drop. The following symptoms are often associated with low blood pressure:

* Blurred vision
* Nausea
* Depression
* Inability to focus or concentrate
* Constant fatigue
* Fainting
* Lightheadedness
* Dizziness
* Cold, clammy, pale skin

What can lead to low blood pressure?

* Being dehydrated
* Getting pregnant
* Taking certain medications
* Deficiencies in your diet
* Significant blood loss
* Heart or endocrine problems

What treatment options are available?

Treatment options vary greatly, depending on the cause of the low blood pressure. For example, you may need to make some simple diet changes or alter some of the medication you take.

Another link: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hyp/hyp_treatments.html

The basic info I have found is a change in diet (more salt and fluids?) or checking for interactions with medications.

It's great that you lost 9 kg if you can afford to...but perhaps your nutrition needs review?:)

Do you have symptoms from this?

Hope you get answers soon!

[Daisy and Delilah]

Lut, knowing that you deal with pain sometimes, do you ever take morphine? It lowered my blood pressure drastically in the hospital. My readings were dangerously low. It went right back up after I stopped it. It made me act weird too.

I once heard that exercise is good to raise the BP. Good luck with it.

[Twisterdog]

I have had low blood pressure all my life. It's dramatically low. I have to warn all new nurses who take my blood pressure not to freak out. Sometimes they do anyway.

Of they symptoms listed above, I always have:
* Constant fatigue
* Fainting
* Lightheadedness
* Dizziness
* Cold, clammy, pale skin

It is indeed quite unpleasant. I also have anemia, which I do not treat as consistently as I should.

I have never had a doctor offer to treat it with any medication. I was always just given the fluid, iron supplement, salt advice. I imagine since mine has always been low, they consider it somewhat "normal" for me.

I have wondered, though ... if my blood pressure should become in the normal range as I get older, is this actually high blood pressure for me? And should it be treated, to lower it back down to abnormally low? Hmmm ...

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

do you ever take morphine?

No, never did!
I had a full bllod-check a week ago, and everything is great! My cholesterol is 162, perfect!!

No idea what is causing my problem...

[Catty1]

And how's your eating? How is your appetite? If you dieted to lose the 9kg, then maybe you are missing something in your food.

{{{{hugs}}}}

[beeniesmom]

When I was a teen I had low blood pressure. My mom used to tell me to eat black licorice. Not the soft kind but the hard kind, the purest you can find. I always used to think that was an old wives tale remedy but it used to work. Also, after doing some research, I found it to be true.

From Wikipedia:

Health effects
Main article: Liquorice#Medicinal use
The liquorice-root extract contains the natural sweetener glycyrrhizin, which is over 50 times sweeter than sucrose. This ingredient has various pharmaceutical properties, the most important ones being that it acts as an expectorant (facilitating removal of mucus from the lungs by coughing) and that it increases blood pressure. The latter effect can become significant with a daily consumption of 50 g or more of liquorice candy for as little as two weeks.[3] Liquorice is also a mild laxative, and has several varied uses in herbal medicine.

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

When I was a teen I had low blood pressure. My mom used to tell me to eat black licorice. Not the soft kind but the hard kind, the purest you can find. I always used to think that was an old wives tale remedy but it used to work. Also, after doing some research, I found it to be true.

From Wikipedia:

Health effects
Main article: Liquorice#Medicinal use
The liquorice-root extract contains the natural sweetener glycyrrhizin, which is over 50 times sweeter than sucrose. This ingredient has various pharmaceutical properties, the most important ones being that it acts as an expectorant (facilitating removal of mucus from the lungs by coughing) and that it increases blood pressure. The latter effect can become significant with a daily consumption of 50 g or more of liquorice candy for as little as two weeks.[3] Liquorice is also a mild laxative, and has several varied uses in herbal medicine.


Are you talking about the salted liquorice? That is indeed very good, because there's a lot of salt in it! But because of the "laxative" working of liquorice, I'd better NOT eat it, because it always gives me diarrhoea..:rolleyes:

[beeniesmom]

Oh no, not the salted kind.

It's just pure licorice. No sugar, salt or gummy stuff.

The pure candy licorice is very strong and like a hard candy. Little pellets.

The first product is what I mean.
http://www.licoriceinternational.com/store/cart.php?cat=Italian+Licorice

[jennielynn1970]

Oooh... salt licorice!!! OMG! I remember having that when I was in Sweden. It took some getting used to, but by the end of my stay there, I was addicted to it. My one librarian friend who traveled used to bring me back salt licorice and double salt licorice when she traveled to Europe.

She retired and moved away. I miss the licorice. :(

We can't get it here at all. Not that I've found, anyway. :(:(