blood pressure

[cpontius]

I am 55 year old female. 5'4" 113 lbs. exercise regularly. I take no medication. I sometimes have svt. About once a month and it lasts about two to three minutes. I wore a holter moniter and my heart rate got up to about 220. the dr. said I didn't need any medication that I was in great shape. Lately I have been dizzy. I have been taking my blood pressure and it is around 90/50, sometimes as low as 85/45. is this harmful or O.K>

[Cleveland Clinic]

cpontis,

While your blood pressure is on the lower side it is not completely out of the normal range, and given your history is probably normal. The real question is whether your BP correlates with your symptoms. There are some medical causes of chronic hypotension, but they tend to run with people that are more symptomatic.

For starters I would keep a log of your blood pressures and symptoms. Your dizziness is concerning and I would first want to see if it correlates. I would use your log and your symptoms in your discussion with your physician.

Good luck

[calico1]

Your dizziness could be caused by your low BP.

[cdausman]

Your high heart rate might be your body's valiant effort to elevate your BP.

[Erik36]

I think your low blood pressure has to do with your small size and your high level of fitness. You say your SVT only lasts a few minutes which might be why your doctor feels you don't need medication at this time. I think your SVT is unrelated to your lower blood pressure. I am not a doctor and this is just my opinion based on my own personal experiences. The CCF Cardio and your own especially should be the source of information that you heed.

BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!

Erik

[CollegeGirl143]

My blood pressure is about 80/50 when im perfectly calm and about 110/60 when im stressed to the max.. ive always had low blood pressure... i also had SVT until last monday ( RF ablation ) i still have low blood pressure.... so unless your only experiencing low blood pressure when your in an episode, they are probably unrelated.  I dont feel dizzy from my low blood pressure though either..im 20 yr old female, 5'5" 105lbs and my first svt episode my heart rate was around 220 and i briefly passed out.. Maybe this is the cause? But if ur not symptomatic of SVT when you are getting dizzy and just having low blood pressure is bothering you, check with your doctor. But my experience is the more fit you are, the better your blood pressure :) i think its a good thing

[jan]

When you had the holter did you note when you were dizzy, did it correlate to the SVT?

I have IST (recorded long periods) and NCS.  My bp was low before being put on beta and calcium channel blockers, it actually went higher at that point (a healthy rise), because it slowed my heart and made for more effective pumping.  Also, for the NCS I was put on salt tabs (I stopped and just make sure to have a high salt diet) and make an effort a keeping hydrated, this helps with the low bp, too.

I don't recommend you do anything w/o talking to your cardio, other than making sure to keep well hydrated.

[jan]

It's probably very strange, but it's rare for me to feel palpitations with my tachycardia.  I feel them with PAC's and such, though.  I was never even aware of the tachy when they've recorded it being 170 bpm.  I do get symptoms, though.  So, I don't know if being hydrated helps or not.

I'm like you, though, I really have to force myself to drink and usually in doing so I get 32-40 oz.  If I could drink what I wanted I would drink 2 cups a day, that's it.  A tech that did a CT scan on me said he finds that fair complected people often are this way.  Don't know if you are or not, but my mom was and she hated drinking, too.

Something just came to mind, when I was in the shower yesterday I had a heart rate of 126 bpm and I was so thirsty.  I almost always have a heart rate of 120 or over in the shower even tho it is only luke warm. Now, that brings to mind that there are times when I am feeling thirsty that I find I am in tachy.  I need a "cold" drink then, when any other time I drink it room temp.  I don't mouth breath from it, so don't know why.  Maybe I should go back to taking the gross salt tabs?  Nah.  LOL

Very interesting, anacyde.

[woodruff]

Yeah, and there's that weird thing fairly recently reported about how redheads need more anesthesia during surgery than other-tinted folks.