Low Blood Pressure

[ohtobeahayes]

Hi All-
Predonation I had a regularly "lowish" blood pressure.  Hovered around 105/67- 110/72 or so.

I've been a little dizzy the past few days (Since Thursday to be specific.  I was so dizzy on Thursday I couldn't work. First time that's ever happened to me!)  This could be gyn related (I've got some ovary stuff going on currently).  Checked my blood pressure today just to "see", and my readings were 101/66, 98/65 and 99/70. <---- resting for 10 minutes beforehand.  The one I took after getting up to answer the door was 117/85.

Nothing overly exciting about any of those numbers, but could it be that with one kidney the lower blood pressure is making me a little dizzy?

I am going to my gyn on Thursday.  I'm just being impatient.

I'm also well hydrated and take an iron supplement (in case you're familiar with that being a possible reason for being dizzy).
Thanks for any thoughts on that!

[Clark]

What device are you using to measure your bp, and how well trained have you been? I'm participating in a study of automatic home bp devices and my experience is that they're widely variable and poorly calibrated, consistantly displaying a bias above or below well done repeated manual measures by trained staff. You also describe variations attributed to activity, but any such measure is very dynamic. Resting bp means just that, rest for a few minutes, take a first measure, another in ten to 15 minutes, an a third in another 10-15 minutes. That will give you a beginning data set to understand the mean and variance of your measuring device. Get some independent expert measures and you'll have calibrating data. Good luck!

[ohtobeahayes]

Thank you Clark!
I used my mother in laws hospital issued home bp machine. I'm not sure what type it is, but from what you said I'll just go with my dizziness probably NOT being my blood pressure.  Like I said, I run low anyway, so even if the 3 I took (like you said, resting, and a few minutes apart each) are fairly accurate, they aren't that much lower than my "usual". 
I'll check that off the list.   
Thank you!

[brookeallison]

my blood pressure predonation was around 90/60 and it still is, although they said it would increase about 5% after donation. i've had no problems regarding it other than the occasional dizziness and being cold.

[WilliamLFreeman]

Y'all,

Consumer Reports rates the "Omron" home B/P machines as most accurate.

Depending on your purpose & what you want to compare your B/P to, another good way to take home B/P is to rest 5 minutes, sitting up with your back supported & feet on the ground, & take 3 B/P readings 1 minutes apart.  That was the standard way B/P was taken in the research sites for clinical trials comparing different B/P meds, and for clinical trials determining if treating high B/P resulted in fewer strokes and heart attacks (it did and does).  So, that method is probably good enough -- and is almost 30 minutes shorter out of your day than Clark's method (that gives information that is more similar to a 24 hour B/P monitor).

It is a good idea for you -- or your machine -- to average the 3 readings to give one average reading for that day/time.  It is also a good idea for you -- or your machine -- to give a weekly average of B/Ps taken the same time (e.g., right after getting up, or late afternoon).  That weekly average is the best single number to show to your primary care provider.

Doing this every day is quite revealing of how variable our B/P is, from moment-to-moment, & day-to-day.  Usually weekly average B/P is a bit less variable.

Bill

[Clark]

Thanks for clarifying, Bill! I find the manual for the Omron professional machine a useful read: http://www.omronhealthcare.com/media/uploads/hem-907xl_product_guide.pdf .  I particularly appreciate the automatic averaging of three measurements as an option.