For most of my life, I have had a very low blood pressure and slow pulse rate. Blood pressures of 100/60 were not uncommon, and that's not a pressure that I would have worried about as a paramedic, unless it was unusual for them, yet it is lower than most. For some reason, after I was hospitalized for seven weeks following a botched surgery for a strangulated hernia in the 1990s, in which I caught a drug-resistant bacteria, my blood pressure has seldom been that low, and is sometimes in the low high range, although it fluctuates greatly. I check it at home, but if it's on the high side when I see my doctor, I have them check it again in five minutes, and it's usually normal. When I am relaxed or sleeping, such as when I am in the hospital on the monitors, it often gets pretty low, as it once normally was. My pulse rate remains slow, however. My surgeon told me that he nearly canceled my last operation because my pulse had dropped to 42 under sedation. He called my GP to confirm that this was not unusual for me. When I was a paramedic instructor teaching students to read an ECG, I had a test that I made up with several different electrocardiograms, all of which were me. I could produce a bradycardia by closing my eyes and relaxing. Then if I went from there to running in place, there would be a period when it was moving from slow to fast, when it would display what appeared to be an irregular rhythm. After running in place for a while, I could produce a tachycardia. If I held my breath for a while, I could sometimes produce a PVC (premature ventricular contraction). Of course, there were normal sinus rhythms of various rates. For the others, I would have to manipulate the connections, tap on the electrodes rhythmically, or misplace some of the electrodes. These might appear to be named arrhythmias, and I would give credit for that when they did appear to be that arrhythmia but they were actually artifact, and if they recognized that, they'd get credit for that too. When people talk about normal vital signs, the important thing is what is normal for them, while healthy. My normal blood pressure and pulse rate were low and slow, albeit lower and slower than the average blood pressure and pulse rate. As we grow older, we can expect these numbers to change, and the changes are more significant than the number at any given time. For example, although no doctor has confirmed this for me, my assumption is that my average blood pressure has increased because of high cholesterol or other obstructions within my vascular system, reducing the diameter of the vessels that the blood has to go through. Eventually, perhaps my pulse rate will increase in order to push the blood through this smaller space.
@Ken Anderson ...."perhaps my pulse rate will increase in order to push the blood through this smaller space.".... True that (as my wife is saying lately, dang F.B.!). Pulse rate is related to the pulmonary ability, also, which changes often due to constriction and dilation of the airways.
That blood pressure of 100/60 is alarming because it is way below the normal 120/80 reading. From what I understand, a low blood pressure is tantamount to weakening of body that may lead to a collapse. But the pronouncement of your doctor regarding your cholesterol level is also scary. I used to be that normal all the time and sometimes I get 110/70 reading when I was new in the office. But as I aged and maybe due to the job-related stress, my blood pressure was rising until it manifested a critical level of 190/100 that caused the doctor to prescribe maintenance medicine for me.
Mine is less than 120/80 @Corie Henson but not as low as Ken's. Usually about 116/70 which is just fine. That's without any meds. My temp,is always low too.... usually about 97 and it's always been that, so that's my norm.
I take a BP med (25mg tablet) each day for high BP. My VA doctor wants me to keep my BP below 140/90 and I generally do that. I also take Fish Oil daily.
My point was (or one of them, anyway) is that my blood pressure has been low my entire life, before the cholesterol, the age or the medications. In fact, my cholesterol levels, pre-Crestor, were just outside of the normal range.
My B.P. tends to be on the high side, as was combined Cholesterol until I started eating vegetables every day. Can't say they caused it for certain, but my previous Chol. levels of 240-250 are now around 200, sometimes less. B.P. remains a bit high. Point is, I never concentrated on eating vegetables before. Frank
I take a BP med but sometimes when I have been dieting my BPt gets to be downright perfect. I could for sure DC the med if I ate a little better, but I am sort of a junkfood junkie. Maybe one of these days I will lick it for good. Fortunately for me, I like fruits and veggies too so I try to eat a lot of those as well. I had a friend who had high BP and didn't even know it, not only did he suffer from small strokes which affected his vision, and balance it also sent him into kidney failure. He is going to need a transplant.
This looks like a good experiment you did with the vegetables. If that is so then I might be having a lower cholesterol level whenever I would go on a vegetable diet. As I had posted in another thread, my husband was prescribed statin for his high cholesterol level and he had stopped taking it. He was now focused on our food regimen which are always meat on the dinner table. Now we have fish at least 2 times a week and lots of vegetables as much as possible. We will know the effect when he undergoes another blood chemistry in the lab before the end of the year.
I have really high BP in the morning, because of my pain level. But as I work my body some, and with the help of pain meds, it will go down to where @Chrissy Page's is by evening. My cholesterol levels run in the 300's. I took Lipitor and Crestor for almost 15 years, but it never came down. Then my 'last' doctor threw everything she could at it, and it did go down to 180, but I felt like had lost all my ability to think, and my body felt like every inch of it had been beatened. I thought if I'm going to die anyway, I might as well quit takeing what was making me feel so bad. I did, and I started feeling better. I started taking some nutritional lessons from @Yvonne Smith , and now I take red yeast rice, garlic, krill oil, and niacin. My doctor was impressed with these efforts, and he really approve when after doing all the cardiology test I went through a few weeks ago, that my arteries are very clear. Although, he still thinks I'll need heart surgery in a few years on my aorta valve. If I live past next summer, I'll have lived longer than the rest of the women in my family.
I have a ways to go to live longer than women or men in my family...my mom died the youngest at 84. Had she not smoked, even though she quit many many years ago she was really the healthiest and in the best shape...except for emphysema.
My father die of complications from emphysema and a triple bypass. He was a welder, and drank to much, but he didn't smoke. I don't know much of his family's health history, but he made it into his 70's, and he abused his body badly. So I'm hoping it will average out to my favor year