Low Blood Pressure : is it a Health Problem?

Low blood pressure, known as hypotension, means that the pressure of blood circulating around your body is lower than normal or lower than expected given the environmental conditions.

Hypotension, however, is a relative term – a person can have low blood pressure compared to other people who have similar physical characteristics, but may still be perfectly healthy.

Low blood pressure is only a problem if it has a negative effect on your body. For example, any of your vital organs, particularly your brain, can become starved of oxygen and nutrients if the blood pressure serving that vital organ is too low for that particular individual.

What are the symptoms of hypotension?

Significant blood loss can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, resulting in the body going into a state of shock. The most dramatic effect of sudden hypotension is unconsciousness. However, low blood pressure usually develops over time.

Some of the most common symptoms are:

• light-headedness, when standing from a sitting or lying position;

• unsteadiness;

• dizziness;

• blurred vision;

• unusual fatigue;

• fainting.

What are the causes of hypotension?

Low blood pressure can result from one or more of many different causes including:

• emotional stress, fear, or pain (these are the most common causes of fainting);

• dehydration, which reduces blood volume;

• your body’s reaction to heat, which is to shunt blood into the vessels of the skin,

leading to dehydration;

• blood donation which reduces your blood volume;

• internal bleeding, such as a perforated stomach ulcer;

• severe blood loss from trauma, such as a road accident or deep cut;

• pregnancy;

• some medications for high blood pressure which lower blood pressure too far;

• diuretics, which produce fluid loss and these can lead to loss of blood volume;

• some medications for depression;

• some medications for certain heart conditions;

• allergic reaction to certain drugs or chemicals;

• some forms of infection, such as toxic shock syndrome.

• heart disease, which can affect the pumping action of the heart muscle;

• some nervous system disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease;

• Addisons disease in which the adrenal glands fail to produce sufficient hormones critical to maintaining blood-pressure.

Many people have experienced the temporary effects of low blood pressure when standing suddenly upright from a sitting or lying position. Usually the blood vessels in your body respond to this sudden increase in gravity by constricting, thus increasing your blood pressure.

If however, the blood vessels don’t adjust to compensate for the increased gravity effects of your standing position and allow the blood pressure to drop, this results in a feeling of light-headedness, or if severe enough, dizziness or fainting.

What can be done about Hypotension?

Treatment for hypotension depends on the specific cause or causes. For example, the dosages of existing medications may need to be altered or a bleeding stomach ulcer surgically repaired. If no particular cause can be found, drugs may be used to raise blood pressure.

While hypotension – low blood pressure – can have significant effects on your health, these are often temporary and, once the cause has been determined, can usually be readily treated.

Hypotension has far less potential to damage your health than does hypertension – high blood pressure.

However, if you believe that persistent low blood pressure is affecting your health you should seek medical attention to determine the cause and take your physician’s recommended steps to improve your blood pressure.

John Vanse has a network of health related sites.


These sites, and further information about your blood pressure may be accessed through:

The Better Health Guide

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Herbs for High Blood Pressure, Hypertension Herbal Remedies

Hypertension or better known as “high blood pressure” is a disease acquired from a person’s way of living. It can be obtained from the foods eaten, vices like smoking and heavy alcohol drinking, obesity and lack of exercise. Hypertension can also be acquired if there is a history of the disease in the family because hypertension is hereditary. Hypertension is a “silent” dangerous disease if not treated or controlled immediately. If it gets worse, it may lead to stroke or heart attack.

Siberian ginseng is an adaptogen – it helps the body adapt to physical, chemical, and biologica stress. It also increases blood oxygen without raising it to toxic levels, as some medications tend to do. Take three to 15 grams of ginseng powder or 10 to 50 drops of tincture daily. Note that Chinese ginseng is only half as effective as Siberian, and tends to promote hypertension.
Herbs for blood pressure include dandelion, hawthorne berry, and garlic. Dandelion is a powerful natural diuretic that reduces the amount of salt in the kidneys. Hawthorne berry has been shown to maximize a person’s ability to exercise while keeping heart and pulse rates at a safe level. And there are dozens of studies that have conclusively proved garlic’s ability to effectively regulate the heart and circulatory systems.

Dandelion: This unwanted weed is actually an incredibly useful medicinal herb, containing more vitamins and minerals than most vegetables. Dandelion is a natural diuretic that is great for eliminating salt from the body. One of the main reasons people develop hypertension is because of a super-sensitivity to salt. Dandelion not only gets rid of excess salt, but it does so without draining the body of potassium. Even pharmaceutical diuretics can’t do that.

Herbs are very useful as a natural way to treat high blood pressure. For those who are averse to the thought of taking chemically-produced drugs, the existence of alternative remedies is heaven sent.

Mix 4 drops of clary sage, or lavender, or lemon, or marjoram or melissa essential oil into some carrier oil in the palm of your hand and massage over your entire body. Three to four mixes will be required. The carrier oil can be almond, grape seed, jojoba or sunflower.

Hawthorne Berry: This herb is hugely popular in Europe as a heart tonic. It has a reputation for strengthening the heart’s pumping ability. It does this by removing plaque from the arterial walls. This allows more blood, oxygen, and nutrients to reach the heart.  Many studies have confirmed the health benefits of hawthorne.

Ginger Root, commonly used in Asian cooking, acts to improve blood circulation and relaxes muscles surrounding the blood vessels. Ginger is also a powerful digestive herb that helps alleviate uneasiness and nausea.

Olive Leaf, from the olive tree native to the Mediterranean region, helps in lowering blood pressure and combats arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat.

Capsicum Pepper Many herbalists consider this pepper to be one of the most powerful and beneficial high blood pressure herbs. There have been reports that it can stop a heart attack in 30 seconds! Whether true of not, there’s no doubt that capsicum pepper has an immediately stimulating effect upon the heart and circulatory system. It reduces inflammation and allows blood to pump freely throughout the body.

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