LOW Blood Pressure

[ed]

Hello.  My wife has a blood pressure that runs around 90/60 give or take.  This is normal for her as I have checked it frequently.  But the problem lies in that she is frequently tired and low on energy.  She works 40+ hours / week and is petite.  5"4' 112#.  She also has dizzy spells.  Her diet is not the best and she is a smoker.  How can she improve her situation?

[DB]

I've been checking my b/p every few days because it's been running high lately during the last few weeks.  Tonight I was not feeling too great but not really horrible and went and took the blood pressure and it was 106/40.  My understanding is that systolic of 106 would be great, I have been unable to find any reference to lower limits for either systolic or diastolic pressures.  Diastolic of 40 sounded low to me so I went somewhere else and retook it and it was virutally unchanged 105/40.  Is this a problem, or just something to be relieved of since it wasn't high.  Thanks!  DB

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

There are some problems with the observation that there is an increased number of strokes and MIs in persons with diastolic blood pressures less than 70.  You see the diastolic blood pressure normally decreases as one gets older, an there is an increase in stroke and heart attack in older people.  So it is a chicken and egg question.  There really is no reason why diastolic blood pressure should have an effect on heart disease so I would focus instead on the systolic pressure.

[Jerry]

I know that normal diastolic blood pressure is from 60 to 85 mmHg, but in Framingham (Dr.Castelli) sudy anything below 70 mmHg has a higher risk (even higher than 90 mmHg) for heart attacks and strokes.What would be the best (60,65,70) diastolic blood pressure in prevention of heart attacks and strokes in a healthy 45 year old male?Thank you.Jerry

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Normal BP is 120/80.

[John]

What is a normal blood pressure for a male age 46?

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Low blood pressure does not cause fatigue although it may lead to dizziness.  The dizzy spells may or may not be related to the blood pressure and her doctor can help sort this out.  The fatigue may be helped by proper sleep and nutrition and regular exercise.