Lower Blood Pressure

Living With Low blood pressure

The problems associated with a low blood pressure are often overlooked - particularly when compared to the media and medical attention devoted to high blood pressure and its treatment. But if you have low blood pressure or hypotension as it is sometimes called then you'll know that the symptoms can ruin your life at times.

I get regular emails asking me for advice about low blood pressure and how best to treat it. I created a page on this site some years ago but the advice it contains still holds true. You can read it by following the link in the tabs at the top of this page. But ... I've now taken the plunge and gone further by creating a new website devoted to low blood pressure and low blood pressure treatment.

Now - bear with me on it - it is still somewhat in the development stages but I hope you will find what's there useful to you.

Send me feedback or ideas if you want more blood pressure topics covered

Labels: low-blood-pressure, low-blood-pressure-symptoms, treatment-for-low-blood-pressure

Seven Weird Ways to Die Young

What advice would you give to a non married, pessimistic pop star who has recently lost weight and lowered their cholesterol level by taking vitamin supplements?

Easy - stay in bed until after lunch of course !

We all know lots of tips about staying healthy and get advice from every TV chat show and billboard. But check out these weird facts if you want to (or want not to ) die young!

Here's how to make sure you die at an early age - hint ... the more of these tips you follow the better (or worse, depends how you look at it)

1. Remain pessimistic at all times
   A 70-year long study of personality traits shows that pessimism is a risk factor for early death, especially among men. Pessimism can also be linked to increased risk for sudden
   death from accidents or violence. Compared with individuals with a more cheerful and optimistic outlook, pessimists were more likely to die from accidents and violence (including suicide). A pessimistic way of seeing the world in which people catastrophize about bad events, predicts untimely death decades later.
   So cheer up - you'll be dead soon!
   
   
2. Eat too many vitamins
   Scientists at Copenhagen University found that people taking supplements which contained vitamins A and E and beta carotene were found to have a five per cent greater risk of dying than those who were not taking them. The research analysed the results of several studies involving over 180,000 people into the benefits of vitamins A, E, and C, along with beta carotene and selenium. Another Big Mac anyone?
   
   
3. Become a famous popstar
   Rock and pop stars are more than twice as likely as the rest of the population to die an early death. The findings are based on more than 1,050 North American and European musicians and singers who shot to fame between 1956 and 1999. All the musicians studied were featured in the All Time Top 1,000 albums, selected in 2000. The albums chosen covered rock, punk, rap, R&B, electronica and new age genres. How long the pop stars survived once they had achieved chart success and become famous was compared with the expected longevity of the general population.
   In all, 100 stars died early between 1956 and 2005. The average age of death was 42 for North American stars and 35 for European stars. When compared with the rest of the population in the U.K. and the U.S., rock and pop stars were about twice as likely to die early and even more likely to do so within five years of becoming famous.
   
   
4. Lose weight too quickly
   Overweight people who are otherwise healthy may increase their risk of dying by intentionally losing weight, according to provocative research involving twins in Finland.
   The research found that those who were overweight who lost weight on purpose were about 86 percent more likely to die for any reason over the next 18 years compared with those whose weight remained stable. Chocolate cake - yes please !
   
   
5. Watch your diet too closely
   Although a high cholesterol level is bad for you - bizarrely enough, a low cholesterol is worse.
   A huge study in Austria showed that high cholesterol was predictive of death from coronary heart disease but low cholesterol results in increased all-cause mortality. Low cholesterol showed significant associations with death from cancer, liver diseases, and mental diseases.
   
   
6. Stay single
   People who don't get married are much more likely to die young. A large research study showed some amazing findings. The researchers found that never-married people, compared with their married peers, are five times more likely to die of infectious disease, twice as likely to die in accidents, homicides, or suicides and nearly forty percent more likely to die of heart disease
   
   
7. Get up too early in the morning
   It's official (hurray) - rising before 5 a.m. is very bad for your health.
   A study conducted in Japan has found that early risers have a higher risk of medical conditions that can lead to heart attack and stroke. People who habitually rose before 5 a.m. had 1.7 times greater risk of high blood pressure and were twice as likely to develop hardening of the arteries as those who got up 2 to 3 hours later, researchers found.
   
   

So - what should you do with this information if you want a long life?
It's a no brainer really - stay in bed all day with your partner, eating junk food and slobbing out while avoiding vitamins or healthy stuff at all costs. Stay cheerful and don't be seduced by a large deal from the recording industry. Stick to all that and you'll live forever .... how cool a life would that be?

Labels: blood-pressure-treatment, high blood pressure, low-blood-pressure, salt and blood pressure

Low Blood Pressure? Have you got too low a blood pressure for your health?

I get many emails on the subject of low blood pressure. There seem to be many sites out there on the web that deal well with topics related to high blood pressure or hypertension but it's much harder to get good quality information about the signs and symptoms of low blood pressure. It can even be difficult to pind down facts on the symptoms of high blood pressure !

Low blood pressure is a common problem and the symptoms can vary from being mild and inconvenient to severe and disabling.

So - what is a low blood pressure?

Well, if 1000 people had their BP measured we might expect to find a spread of readings ranging from as high as 200 / 120 down to as low as 80 / 50 with most people clustering around the middle of the range at around 130 / 85. The vast majority of these people would have no symptoms of any kind – no matter what their BP reading actually was.

If you have always have low BP readings of around 90 / 50 (or even lower perhaps) for the whole of your life then without doubt you have low blood pressure but there is nothing wrong with you or with your low BP reading. You should be pleased that your risk of stroke or other disease will be much less than many others in the population and it is very unlikely indeed that you will experience any symptoms. Your level is normal for you and needs no investigation or treatment. I call this "normal low blood pressure" - in other words that level of blood pressure is simply normal for you and nothing to be worried about.

If your BP is usually around 130 / 80 and suddenly or gradually drops to a level around 90 / 50 then it is very likely that you will become aware of hypotension symptoms related to this change. As in the above example you have low blood pressure but in this instance it is not normal for you to have readings this low. You may need to see your doctor for tests because it is quite likely that some other disease or perhaps a medication has caused your BP to drop.
You should seek medical advice for this.

You can read a lot more about low blood pressure symptoms and possibilities for low blood pressure treatment by following these links

Labels: blood-pressure-treatment, low-blood-pressure