Stupid question

josh rousseau

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why is low blood pressure bad like I get that high blood pressure ur heart Is working harder but why is low blood pressure bad.
 

VentMonkey

Family Guy
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Because, like, end-organ damage. Seriously, look that up.

Cliff note~ it relates to hypertension as well.
 

DesertMedic66

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Why is low oil pressure in a car bad?

You may also want to look up Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP).
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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BlogImages-061-810x421.png
 

johnrsemt

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Remember though: to have high blood pressure and average blood pressure you have to have people in a low blood pressure category:
My normal walking around blood pressure is 90/50
Physical in December after walking into room and sitting for about 1 minute while tech put the cuff on and another minute to run it (3 tries before the machine believed itself) I was 87/56. 86/56, 88/52 (he didn't believe I could be that low and kept trying).
I have walked into the blood bank with a BP of 70/22; for some reason they wouldn't let me donate: No dizziness, no sleepiness except it was an hour after getting off a 16 hour shift. no confusion except from the people taking my BP 9 times
 
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josh rousseau

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I am just not getting why low blood pressure is bad it obviously is bad but why when you have high blood pressure ur heart is working to hard when it’s low is it not working hard enough is hypotension the cause for perfusion?
 

Peak

ED/Prehospital Registered Nurse
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Your tissues need a certain amount of gas exchange, nutrition, and removal of metabolites in order to function. The vascular system is a series of pressure gradients where for a given pressure at a starting point it will drop by a predictable value for every step down. If your Aorta is at 100S then we would expect large arteries to be similar. In smaller arteries we can start to see pressure drop, maybe by about 10-20 points, in arterioles we may see a drop of down another 50 or so points to 10-20 when blood is at the capillary. Granted this pressure relationship is a gradient rather than linear, but it becomes clear how a low systolic pressure or mean arteriole pressure can reduce the amount of flow at the capillary bed and therefore exchange available to the tissues. A pressure of 50S is going to provide minimal at most supply to the capillaries and if not rapidly reversed will lead to permanent damage.

Insufficient blood flow to the mesentery = ischemic bowel and then sepsis. Insufficient blood flow to the kidneys = kidney injury. Insufficient blood to the heart = myocardial demand greater than supply and subsequent ischemia and then infarct. Insufficient flow the brain = transient and then permanent insult to the brain.
 

Benjamin123

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I am just not getting why low blood pressure is bad it obviously is bad but why when you have high blood pressure ur heart is working to hard when it’s low is it not working hard enough is hypotension the cause for perfusion?
Perfusion is the blood circulating the body and bringing oxygen to your organs and body parts. Hypotension is low blood pressure. So if you have low blood pressure, your body might not have adequate perfusion and there for is not getting good blood flow and oxygen. It’s important so you can recognize if a patient has adequate circulation or not. But in your case, it is probably just your body and how your made. If your physician doesn’t see a problem then I wouldn’t worry. I’m no doctor though.
 

Flummox

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Peak summed it up beautifully, so my contribution is going to pale in comparison.

Even mild hypotension can get ugly, and that's because a sudden drop upon standing means your patient could be attacking the floor with their skull. Syncope can be intense when you're orthostatic. I've been hypotensive since puberty and at its worst, when my standing BP was 70/40, I had to spend 2 months in a wheelchair solely to prevent injury. Had to do a month of PT to re-acclimate my heart to mobility.

Hypotension is a variation of blood going round and round, which by definition means it's bad.
 
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