Low blood pressure (do I need to go to a doctor?)

[stephen755]

I am 22 years old, 40 pounds overweight and generally unhealthy with a binge eating problem. For the past week I have felt lightheaded and dizzy constantly with a few times I felt so bad I thought I was going to fall out of my chair. Only recently my diastolic blood pressure has been a lot lower than normal. My blood pressure is usually around 125/85 or 120/70 but lately it has been 101/60, 95/69, 105/61, 122/63, with the lowest being 125/52 (nearly 30 points lower then usual for diastolic but normal for systolic). I would feel not very good usually but not always during readings like these. For two days the lightheaded feeling completely went away then recently I've been having a pressure feeling in my chest region but it is all the way to the left and my heart isn't even that far over. I have also started having some pretty big muscle spasms and for the last couple of months every once in a while I would get a very bad pain or pressure feeling right under my right ankle for no apparent reason which would make me start to worry about PAD, since I can't think of any other explanation for it.

I want to go to the doctor but I don't have the money and I am already in medical debt. I went to a cardiologist around 5 months ago and he just told me that would be highly unlikely for someone 22 to have heart disease then he made a appointment for me to have a stress test but I canceled it thinking it wasn't really needed. Most of the EKGs I've had these last bunch of years has came out normal except for some while in the hospital where I couldn't relax after my gallbladder was removed.

[stephen755]

Thanks Lisa.

[Mom2four85]

sorry to hear you're going through this - I've been through this....a dr told me lose weight and ALL your problems will go away - I lost weight, exercised daily sometimes twice daily, got in shape and it didn't just all go away

I would definitely look at your lifestyle, not just diet and see if that plays any part in what's going on; it could be heart related, but then again could be BP or sugar related.

if you make changes and get healthy, not just lose weight and you're still feeling this way - get a full workup; you need to ask your dr the best exercise for you and start slow and work up to a healthy limit daily - do this regardless if you lose weight; keeping your heart healthy can save your life :)

dizziness, fainting, low bp can point to other issues; for me it was my autonomic nervous system failing and the dr took the easy way out and looked at my weight and said lose weight instead of sending me for a full work up; if he had, some of my health problems wouldn't have worsened as they did.

if you google, poor man's tilt table test and have a good reliable BP/HR monitor you can check yours - being overweight taxes not only your body but your heart because it has to work that much harder to make sure your entire body receives adequate blood & oxygen

the other option is to ask for a tilt table test if your dizziness etc continue, it can dx alot of things going on in your body

good luck

[stephen755]

When I went to the cardiologist a while ago that was just for chest pains that I was having then. Earlier today when I started to feel very lightheaded my pulse was 90 with a BP of 122/61. My pulse seems to be usually around 77 while feeling dizzy. If I feel as lightheaded as I did that one day then I will probably have to go see a doctor.

Thanks for responding.

[Jerry_NJ]

You didn't mention ( or I didn't see) what you heart rate is, especially when feeling dizzy.  

The low blood pressure is usually, to my knowledge, not a problem except for the possibility of dizziness, even passing-out... and that can be dangerous.

Given your young age and the fact that your past doctor visit didn't result in any strong actions, I'd say you should be able to spend some time on getting a grip on your eating/weight problem.  I'd put my "money" on you feeling  a lot better if you go your weight down and did it by eating a "healthy heart" diet.  

If you are worried about passing-out or your symptoms continue you should figure out some way to talk with a doctor... and from my limited knowledge I don't know why a stress test would be used... but I'm not a doctor and it is a certainty that your cardiologist is a far better source of what to do than any information you'll get on the web.