Hypotension: causes, symptoms, treatment

Dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, vision problems - all these are symptoms of hypotension. According to statistics, women are more susceptible to the disease than men, and the disease is diagnosed both in childhood and in old age. What kind of illness this is, how to recognize it in time and fight it correctly - we will tell you in this article. 

What is hypotension

This is permanent or temporary low blood pressure. The complexity of the disease is that it is often difficult to identify even for the patient himself, since in order to recognize the disease you need to measure your blood pressure, and the symptoms themselves can be blurred and unnoticeable.

Causes of hypotension

There are many reasons why hypotension may occur, since the reasons for a drop in pressure can be very different. However, among the common reasons, experts note the following:

• Stress and prolonged stay in states that traumatize the psyche. The reason is not entirely one-sided, because the body can react to a similar condition not with low, but with high blood pressure, then it manifests itself hypertension.
• Another reason for the disease is neurocircular dystonia. This is a whole “bouquet” of diseases of the cardiovascular system. As experts in this field say, in 80% of cases this disease results in a diagnosis of hypotension.
• Hypotension can be a consequence of certain diseases, for example: hypothyroidism, infectious lesions, tumors, both benign and malignant, problems with the spine, heart failure, etc.
• Heavy bleeding leads to low blood pressure.
• Vitamin deficiency, especially deficiency of vitamins E, C and B.
• Poisoning, serious injury and anaphylactic shock.
• A consequence of long-term exhausting diets.
• Regular use of certain medications can cause low blood pressure.
• Sudden changes in atmospheric pressure and changes in weather can cause changes in pressure.

These are just some of the reasons why blood pressure may drop below normal levels. By the way, blood pressure below 100/60 is considered low.

Symptoms of hypotension

If the pressure decreases for a physiological reason, then the person may simply not notice the symptoms, but in other situations the symptoms will depend on the genesis of the pathology:

• Orthostatic hypotension. Symptoms are especially severe in older people. A decrease in pressure occurs within a short period of time when the patient sits down or gets up from a lying position. The symptoms are as follows: dizziness, disturbances in cardiac function, vision problems, unsteady gait - a person may even fall. In some cases, panic attacks and fainting may occur.
• Postprandial hypotension. This form of blood pressure problem is more typical for healthy people and is often observed in old age. After a meal, low blood pressure may be recorded for two hours. If a person does not have any other diseases, then he may not notice symptoms at all. Although in some situations this type of hypotension manifests itself: nausea, weakness, impaired vision, consciousness and speech.
• Hypotension caused by stress and overwork. Often such hypotension is recorded in people who are overly involved in sports, as well as those who are diagnosed with diabetes and other circulatory problems. Symptoms of this type of hypotension: dizziness, feeling of weakness, darkening in the eyes, weakness in the legs, they also say that the legs are “woolly.” 
• Essential hypotension is often diagnosed in young women. The stability of the signs is noted, and the symptoms include: the appearance of a feeling of cold or heat, headache, depression and anxiety, panic attacks and fainting, shortness of breath, in men these symptoms are added problems with potency. Such hypotension has a wave-like character, i.e. it can occur against the backdrop of weather changes, under high psychological stress, and subside when negative factors go away.
• Secondary hypotension appears against the background of other diseases, so the symptoms of the underlying disease always come forward, and the symptoms of hypotension are almost invisible. As a rule, it manifests itself in the form of increased sweating of the palms and feet, pain in the head, weakness and drowsiness.

Hypotension in children

Considering the statistics, hypotension in children, unfortunately, is becoming more and more common, and boys are less susceptible to the disease than girls. There are several reasons for these health problems:

• Genetic predisposition. In fact, scientists have not identified the gene that would be responsible for the transmission of “hereditary pressure,” but it has been experimentally observed that children whose parents had problems of this kind suffer from similar pressure more often than otherwise. In 30-50% the disease is inherited from the mother and in 20% from the father. If the mother developed hypotension during the perinatal period, then the baby has a greater chance of acquiring the disease.
• Age. Hypotension is often diagnosed in children during puberty, since adolescents are most susceptible to stress and anxiety. 
• Individual psychological characteristics. It was revealed that among children suffering from hypotension there are more those who have a hypertrophic sense of duty, high self-esteem and other psychological problems.
• Chronic pathologies. The more often a child gets sick and the longer the list of his chronic diseases, the greater the risk of developing problems with blood pressure.
• Constant stress, mental fatigue, poor living conditions, a negative psychological climate in the family and a sedentary lifestyle - all these factors are also among the causes of hypotension.

Sometimes hypotension can be quite expected; this applies to cases where it does not act as an underlying disease, but as a symptom of another illness.

You can tell that a child has hypotension by the following symptoms:

• fainting;
• nosebleeds;
• feeling of lack of air;
• pain in joints and muscles;
• such children have problems with traveling in transport;
• an incomprehensible increase in body temperature without other symptoms;
• heart problems;
• impaired functioning of the digestive organs;
• memory impairment;
• impaired functioning of the central nervous system: headaches appear, mental abilities deteriorate, instability in terms of emotions appears, etc.

Treatment of hypotension

High-quality treatment should take into account the factor that caused the onset of the disease. After identification, it is necessary to eliminate the cause, and then fight the symptoms. General recommendations for the treatment of hypotension:

• Normalize your sleep and wakefulness patterns. Healthy sleep should last at least eight hours, and during wakefulness there should be no serious stress, only in a moderate volume and pace. If we talk about hypotension, then ideally sleep should be nine to eleven hours. It is useful to sleep with hypotension with the head of the bed raised; it is extremely undesirable to stay in a horizontal position for a long time. 
• Bring your nutrition back to normal, switch to fractional meals. Eat more often, but in smaller portions. Prefer warm, but not cold or hot, light food. Breakfast should be as nutritious as possible and made only from healthy ingredients. Porridge, coffee or sweet tea with nutritious sandwiches are especially welcome. The maximum amount of salt consumed is up to 20 g, unless there are other contraindications. Drink at least two liters of water a day, and avoid alcohol altogether.
• Attend massage sessions regularly.
• Perform a set of physical therapy prescribed by your treating doctor.
• Good results in the treatment of hypotension are shown by various water procedures and physiotherapy, about which you can ask your doctor in more detail.
• Do it easy morning exercises, this will warm up the muscles and saturate the body with oxygen.
• Very useful for hypotension taken in the morning contrast shower, the optimal duration of which is about seven minutes.

With the permission of the doctor, traditional medicine can be used in treatment.

• Tinctures of immortelle, rosea radiola, prickly tartar, ginseng, echinacea, lemongrass, and leuzea have a good effect on the treatment of hypotension.
• Mix 50 g of natural ground coffee, juice squeezed from one lemon and half a kilogram of honey. This mixture perfectly raises blood pressure when needed.
• Pour ten grams of dry immortelle with a glass of water and boil in a water bath for a quarter of an hour. Strain and drink a third of a glass before meals.
• Pour 50 g of prickly tartar with half a liter of boiling water and cook for ten minutes, then leave the finished product for about an hour. Take a large spoon several times a day.
• Grind lemon and half a kilo of dried fruits (dried apricots) into a total mass. Add four large spoons of honey and stir. This delicacy perfectly improves the functioning of the heart and blood vessels, normalizing blood pressure.
• Freshly squeezed celery juice is useful for hypotension. He drinks a couple of large spoons in the mornings and evenings.
• Strong sweet tea with crushed ginger added to it raises blood pressure well.