Blood Pressure

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(iii)    Tiredness – Low BP people suffer from lack of energy and generally feel tired and fatigued.

(iv)    Depression and Anxiety – Persons suffering from Low BP are more prone to be anxious and depressed than those with normal BP.

Causes of Low Blood Pressure

34.     There is no apparent medical reason for low BP. It possibly happens because the blood cools and goes down to the lower limbs. In the absence of reflex action by the calf muscles, which are responsible for pumping blood towards the heart, blood fails to reach the heart and brain and the result is low BP. Conditions in which low BP has strong associations include:

(i)           Disturbance in the autonomous nervous system.

(ii)          Nutritional deficiencies e.g. in extreme form of dieting.

(iii)        Prolonged illness that leads to wasting of the calf muscles.

(iv)        Medications to treat high BP, tranquilisers, betablockers and other cardiac drugs.

(v)         Chronic Fatigue Syndrome may also be associated with low BP.

(vi)        Diseases like diabetes, tuberculosis of adrenal glands and diarrhoea and vomiting.

Complications of Low Blood Pressure

35.     Although low BP is generally thought of as desirable (it puts less pressure on the heart than high BP), but in some cases, it can go too low when it can have a downside. Two such complications are:

(i)      Orthostatic Intolerance (OI) – This fatigue-related disorder in which you feel sick when you stand up may be tied to low BP. When a person with OI stands, his heart races, stress hormones flood his system and he can feel light headed, shaky, nauseated and tired. Some people who have OI feel run down all the time whether they are standing, sitting or lying down. A large number of people with systolic pressure between 80 and 90 could develop symptoms of OI.