Dealing with low blood pressure

[Volenta]

There is a lot of attention about how to lower your blood pressure since most people's blood pressure is much too high. But my problem is actually having a too low blood pressure, and this has been pointed out to me last week the hard way. Last week I became very dizzy (like drunk) and it felt like I was going to pass out, then I started to sweat enormously, together with vomiting, hyperventilation and tingling in my arms and legs (paresthesia). I was taken to a doctor right away and he thought that my low blood pressure together my body shape (thin and not much muscles) and not drinking enough water in the warmth caused this sudden attack/unbalance of my body.

I've always had (before going vegan) a low blood pressure including all of the symptoms (lightheadedness, temporary no sight when standing up very quickly, ...). Going vegan is a great way of lowering your blood pressure, so this also does not help me very much. This is a long term problem I want to do something about—I obviously don't want to have this experience again. I do eat enough food with sodium (probably too much like most people) and even though I'm drinking some extra water now (I'm actually not so sure whether I drank too little before having that experience), it doesn't seem to help to remove my lightheadedness (don't worry, I feel it very lightly now, not as intense as it was last week).

The reason I'm posting this is to ask for advice about a healthy way of raising your blood pressure. I of course want to do this within a vegan diet, and since doctors don't know much about that... The only advice I got was eating some soup (because of the sodium), so I made a big pan of tomato-lentils soup for this week. But taking even more sodium doesn't seem to be very healthy, and also not very useful. I've made myself some broth after the incident and the days after which is pretty salty, but not sure whether it's helping a lot. Taking to much potassium in proportion to sodium also doesn't seem to be very good, which I do in my breakfast (morning smoothie, fruits don't contain much sodium). But I'm no nutrition expert, but noticed some of you seem to know much about it, so I thought why not ask.

[thebestofenergy]

Sorry to hear that.
I have low blood pressure too, but not at your level.

-Excercise helps optimize blood pressure, whether it's elevated or low; excercising regularly definitely helps.
-Vitamin D also helps; it's a vitamin critical for maintaining healthy blood pressure.
-Another way is to eat frequent small meals instead of large ones; this can help prevent postprandial hypotension (low blood pressure after eating). Lying down after eating or sitting still for a while may also help.
-While caffeine helps increase blood pressure, avoid caffeine at night, and limit your alcohol intake (this helps to avoid becoming dehydrated, that would result in low blood pressure).
-You already know about sodium and water.
-Increase your intake of B vitamins, which have been proven to improve circulation and regulate blood pressure.

Then there are drugs, of course. But I prefer not to use those.

EDIT: Oops. Accidentally copy-pasted the stress thing. My bad. Stress raises blood pressure (but it's best to avoid of course).

[PrincessPeach]

IMO if you are consistently feeling light headed/ dizzy you should take a blood pressure medicine. The best way to keep your heart rate up is to keep active but if your dizzy I know that exercising will be hard to do... Your diet has little to do with low bp besides from staying hydrated, salt intake, vitamin D & B, a vegan diet is suggested to help reverse people who have high blood pressure because not eating animals will help un-clog your arteries ... So don't worry about your diet it is genetics for sure! I would take a blood pressure medicine so you can feel better and start working out, after a few months of working out and your body is fit and muscular and you've gotten used to working out and staying active then you could probably get off the medicine but; until your body is ready and fit I would suggest taking a blood pressure medicine.

Does that make sense?

I hope you feel better <3

Try laying on your back and lifting your legs up in the air next time you feel dizzy or faint, doing this will increase blood flow back into your heart thus increasing your blood pressure. This is not an exercise, it is something to do in case of an emergency when you feel faint it will increase your blood flow and heart rate quickly...

[brimstoneSalad]

The sodium:potassium ratio can be more important than the overall amount. As long as you don't consume it all at once in a high concentration (which can increase the virulence of certain stomach bugs like H. Pylori which in turn cause cancer), there's nothing wrong with eating more salts (plural, in balance), because they'll be removed from your body by drinking more water.

Some foods act as blood thinners, particularly garlic and onion; avoid eating too much of these.
This could very well be the root of your problem.
Most people can tolerate them well. Dogs, on the other hand, can die from consuming even a moderate amount of garlic and onion due to the effect of thinning their blood.

[Volenta]

-Vitamin D also helps; it's a vitamin critical for maintaining healthy blood pressure.

Great, I will buy some of those supplements then.

-Another way is to eat frequent small meals instead of large ones; this can help prevent postprandial hypotension (low blood pressure after eating). Lying down after eating or sitting still for a while may also help.

This postprandial hypotension is indeed something I sometimes have. I wasn't sure why I had this sudden dizziness after eating.

-While caffeine helps increase blood pressure, avoid caffeine at night, and limit your alcohol intake (this helps to avoid becoming dehydrated, that would result in low blood pressure).

I drink about 1 or 2 cups of coffee a day and very rarely alcohol (last time is months ago). Shouldn't cause much trouble.

-Increase your intake of B vitamins, which have been proven to improve circulation and regulate blood pressure.

What are ways to increase this intake without taking more supplements? My B11 and B12 are certainly alright. B1, B2 and B6 could be higher.

EDIT: Oops. Accidentally copy-pasted the stress thing. My bad. Stress raises blood pressure (but it's best to avoid of course).

Well, I think you were right. I've also read about avoiding stress when having low blood pressure.

***

The best way to keep your heart rate up is to keep active but if your dizzy I know that exercising will be hard to do...

Exactly. I did do some exercise about 2 years ago, but this was really hard for me because it made me dizzy when doing it to intensive. I had to take some breaks to feel better. I think I will go to the doctor this week to ask advice (and whether it is needed to take medicine, I always try to avoid it where I can).

Starting with exercising is indeed something I should do...

***

Some foods act as blood thinners, particularly garlic and onion; avoid eating too much of these.
This could very well be the root of your problem.
Most people can tolerate them well. Dogs, on the other hand, can die from consuming even a moderate amount of garlic and onion due to the effect of thinning their blood.

Ah, I do eat onions pretty regularly and also garlic sometimes. I will try to cut that down then. But thinning your blood is not necessarily bad, right? If it's thinner, it can circulate easier on the same pressure. But then again, I don't know whether your body is adjusting/lowering the pressure to match it.

[thebestofenergy]

-Increase your intake of B vitamins, which have been proven to improve circulation and regulate blood pressure.

What are ways to increase this intake without taking more supplements? My B11 and B12 are certainly alright. B1, B2 and B6 could be higher.

http://www.health-alternatives.com/vita ... chart.html - this link is very useful in this cases. There are plenty of fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes that are rich of B vitamins.
Nutrients that can help with absorption of vitamin B2 are vitamins A, B1, B3, B5, B6, and B12, as well as biotin, chromium, copper, cysteine, folate, glutathione, iron, magnesium, phosphate, potassium, and zinc.
For B6 and B12, eating enough of them should provide sufficient amounts to maintain health and proper absorption in healthy people. Other ways to increase absorption are decreasing your alcohol consumption and maintaining digestive health (basically the bigger is your intake, the better is your absorption).

Some foods act as blood thinners, particularly garlic and onion; avoid eating too much of these.
This could very well be the root of your problem.
Most people can tolerate them well. Dogs, on the other hand, can die from consuming even a moderate amount of garlic and onion due to the effect of thinning their blood.

Ah, I do eat onions pretty regularly and also garlic sometimes. I will try to cut that down then. But thinning your blood is not necessarily bad, right? If it's thinner, it can circulate easier on the same pressure. But then again, I don't know whether your body is adjusting/lowering the pressure to match it.

Thinning your blood lowers blood pressure. The blood becomes more viscous, and it's more difficult for it to circulate.

Viscosity, or thickness of the fluid. If the blood gets thicker, the result is an increase in arterial pressure. Certain medical conditions can change the viscosity of the blood. For instance, anemia (low red blood cell concentration), reduces viscosity, whereas increased red blood cell concentration increases viscosity.

[brimstoneSalad]

Viscosity, or thickness of the fluid. If the blood gets thicker, the result is an increase in arterial pressure. Certain medical conditions can change the viscosity of the blood. For instance, anemia (low red blood cell concentration), reduces viscosity, whereas increased red blood cell concentration increases viscosity.

I hadn't thought of that.

How about increasing your red blood cell count?

There are a lot of tricks athletes use.

A common one is a hypobaric chamber

I haven't seen this site before, but this article talks about them a bit:
http://www.healthstatus.com/health_blog ... de-chamber

But if you're not worried about getting tested, Erythropoietin may be easier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoietin

See if your doctor will prescribe a low dosage for you; it may do the trick.

[PrincessPeach]

I suggest finding a good plant based b complex supplement, make sure it contains these 8 ingredients thiamin (b1) riobflavin(b2) niacin b6 folate b12 biotin pantothenic acid... Lab made vitamins are hard to digest & IMO a waste of money... Also do you take a multi-vitamin, if not I suggest finding a good plant based one as well. I would have your dr do a blood test on your iron levels before you take an iron supplement, I continued taking my iron supplement after my pregnancy when I was no longer anemic and it made me fatigue and I was bruising from the lightest bumps...


Iron levels do not have a direct impact on your blood pressure levels..
You wouldn't want to make your self more fatigue!


http://www.livestrong.com/article/49384 ... -pressure/

[thebestofenergy]

Viscosity, or thickness of the fluid. If the blood gets thicker, the result is an increase in arterial pressure. Certain medical conditions can change the viscosity of the blood. For instance, anemia (low red blood cell concentration), reduces viscosity, whereas increased red blood cell concentration increases viscosity.

I hadn't thought of that.

How about increasing your red blood cell count?

I haven't tought of that either.
It should work.

I also found this http://www.md-health.com/How-To-Increas ... Cells.html (how to increase the number of red blood cells, and therefore increase blood pressure)
Volenta you might want to have a look at it, but most things have already been said.

[brimstoneSalad]

I suggest finding a good plant based b complex supplement, make sure it contains these 8 ingredients thiamin (b1) riobflavin(b2) niacin b6 folate b12 biotin pantothenic acid... Lab made vitamins are hard to digest & IMO a waste of money...

The issue is actually that when you take vitamins in a huge clump, some can have more difficulty in being absorbed in enough quantity than if they are more distributed through food and time- your system gets more time to soak them up.

A plant based compacted vitamin would be about the same as 'synthetic', if it's a concentrated source.

Some 'natural' forms are more bio-available, but the importance of bio-availability is often over-stated, because it's usually a difference of only two or three times (seems like a lot, but it isn't).

For example, Let's say vitamin X has two forms- 'natural' and a chemically pure 'salt'

The salt has a 25% bioavailability
The natural form has a 50% bioavailability

The natural form seems better, right?

But the salt is $10/gram, and the natural form (extracted from plants), is $80/gram.

Uhoh.

That means you're paying four times as much for the natural form, for the same amount of vitamin absorbed.

You have to compare the bioavailability to the cost per equivalent dosage, otherwise you have an incomplete fiscal picture.

You're definitely peeing more of the other form out, but you're $7.50 down the drain instead of $40 due to the cost difference.

I would have your dr do a blood test on your iron levels before you take an iron supplement, I continued taking my iron supplement after my pregnancy when I was no longer anemic and it made me fatigue and I was bruising from the lightest bumps...

Yes, Iron can be nasty stuff. Your body has no way to get rid of excess other than by bleeding.

An an interesting fact: Sequestering iron is the main way your body defends against infection. Basically, when bacteria gets into your body, iron is an important limiting factor, and makes it harder for the bacteria to reproduce because it can't find enough iron to do so with. Having excess iron in your body is just inviting bacteria in for a buffet of organic matter and plenty of iron with which to be fruitful and multiply.

I suspect that lower iron levels (more healthy) is a large part of the reason vegetarians and vegans seem to be less susceptible to infections.