My father has recently been diagnosed with low blood pressure. He notices it especially when getting up from bed. Oddly though, he doesn’t seem to notice it when getting up from a laying position on our couch.
This has gotten me worried a little bit. I have already lost two uncles this year. And my father waited a little later in life to have me, so he is a somewhat elderly person.
Does anyone know what causes low blood pressure? Is it usu. serious or is it typically nothing to worry about? As I’ve said, he is under the care of a doctor. So any advice I receive he will just be supplemental to that. But any experience anyone has with this will be helpful.
Impossible to discuss the subject specifically geared towards him without knowing what type and severity of heart problems, what meds he’s on, and what his pressures and pulse are while lying, sitting and standing. Oh, and his labwork too.
I suffer from low blood pressure and can give you some general advice…
Make sure your father takes the meds his doctor prescribed at the correct time, a few hours does make a difference. For instance, I take a pill before I even get out of bed in the morning.
If your father gets dizzy standing up, tell him to cough or bear down, it might help with the dizziness. (A tip from my doctor, not sure how it works, but it does seem to help)
Make sure he gets plenty of water. If he gets dehydrated he is more likely to pass out. I would also add to make sure he gets plenty of salt in his diet but I would wait and talk to your doctor about that if he has a heart condition.
Do not give him over the counter meds without talking your doctor first.
Hopefully those suggestions will help, but for further advice talk to your father’s doctor (it is what he is there for)
Coughing and “bearing down” contracts muscles in the lower body, which tends to drive blood up towards the head, assisting the efforts of the heart. In addition to people with low blood pressure, astronauts and pilots under significant g-load - which can cause similar effects - use the same sort of technique to combat dizziness and pending black-out.
I have low blood pressure. I always warn the nurses before they take my BP at the doctor’s office, or likely they’ll frown at the machine and take it again. “That can’t be right.”
I faint on occasion, but other than that, I have no ill effects from it. I just have to be careful in situations where I know I’ll get dizzy.
My doc has told me that if I feel faint I should lay down and elevate my legs-- get the blood back into the chest and brain. (Sitting down doesn’t help.)
I’m another low blood pressure person: standing up too quickly or sitting up from a lying down position can trigger a ‘brown out’ for me. Haven’t fainted yet, but I do have the added problem of being someone who gets motion sick. Dizzyness tiggered by brown out + motion sickness → urf
No idea as to the cause, but I might have inherited it from my Mom.
At the moment, the birth control medication I’m on (which has a potential side effect of raising blood pressure) seems to be keeping my blood pressure in check. It still isn’t exactly ‘normal’, but at least it doesn’t tend to dip as much as it did.
When I can, I do keep track of my blood pressure using a manual cuff. The automatic ones don’t work very well on me (small arm) and they HURT. (Some of them have given me bruises and tiny blood blister-like marks.) Generally a feeling like I overslept accompanies low readings. (80/40 or below.) When I notice myself feeling ‘off’ like that, I simply adjust my activities to compensate.
This is what a doctor told me when I found out I had high blood pressure. He explained the increased risk of heart attacks and heart disease. I turned the question and asked him if I were to get it down, how low was too low. He said that the lower your blood pressure, the lower your risk of sudden death or heart disease period. That is probably not right in some circumstances but I think the basic idea is. I wouldn’t worry about your father having an increased risk of death. It may be the opposite depending on where it is coming from.
Both my wife and mother have very low blood pressure. My wife regularly reads about 85 over 50 or something in that range (normal is about 120 over 80). The doctors have never expressed much concern with it although she used to be prone to getting light-headed.
Well, my father’s low blood pressure went away for a while. The only weird thing is now he feels light-headed and “weak” all the time (except when lying down, he says). He will see the doctor in about two weeks, i.e., a week from next Friday.
I am very concerned about my father. He is a very important part of my life now. And I just couldn’t be without him now. Does anyone have any further advice or even words of encouragement to add? Specifically, what do you think about the doctor’s decision to wait two weeks to see him?
I just have to ask again if you have any reason to believe his low blood pressure is associated with an increased risk of sudden death. It often isn’t and the symptoms you see are about all there is to it. Both my wife and members of both sides of my family have it and, while it is something to be taken into consideration during medical procedures, no doctor has expressed much concern about the condition itself. I am not a doctor of course but I have high blood pressure and I would gladly trade his condition for mine any day.
All I can tell you is his blood pressure got dangerously low at one point. Then the doctor’s office mesured his blood pressure again, and said it was all right. Now we have to wait two weeks to see the same doctor again .
I understand that you’re concerned, but you’re probably not going to get great answers from anyone here about this. Is there any reason you can’t speak to his doctor about the situation or even get some reassurance from your own doctor about it? I hate to think of you there sick with worry if there’s not any need to be.
Here’s some internet info in the meantime. I hope your father feels better soon.
If you’re looking it up yourself, the term you probably want is hypotension.
"Chronic low blood pressure is almost never serious. But health problems occur when blood pressure drops suddenly and the brain is deprived of an adequate blood supply. This can lead to dizziness or lightheadedness. "
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