Low blood pressure and low pulse, am I dying?

[GreenStudent]

I went in to donate blood today and the woman that checked me told me I had low blood pressure (90/60) and pulse (54). Those were just high enough to donate but almost too low. My temp was kinda low too at 96.8.

She told me it's normal in healthy young people that exercise regularly. I am young..I guess, 25. Relatively healthy but not exactly "fit". I don't exercise regularly at all. Does anyone have any experience with this? I know I could just make an appointment with a doctor but I'm really trying to save money right now plus trying not to freak out.

Thanks!

[karanyavel]

Hi!

I have low blood pressure and pulse, used to have low core temp (97ish). My BP is about yours but drops drastically in certain situations (being in pain, for example). My cholesterol is also low and my "good" cholesterol (HDL) is perfect. Oh and my blood sugar runs low and shows low reactivity (doesn't go up much if I eat a pile of sugar).

All of these are GOOD things, although it confuses me sometimes because I'm significantly overweight and don't exercise at all -- I'm disabled. If I had to guess I'd say it has something to do with the fact I generally eat a very healthy diet (just too many calories, haha).

About the low blood pressure in particular:
It's not a problem unless it becomes symptomatic. Mine is sometimes symptomatic, causing me to faint, so I was advised by my doctor to enjoy plenty of caffeine and liberal amounts of salt. They wanted me to go for a 10,000mg sodium/day diet but I've only been able to manage about 6,000mg and I LOVE salt.

I wouldn't worry about it, but if you're freaked out, you could always go get your heart checked out. I did and mine was fine.

--K

[remijo]

I have chronic hypotension (about 90 over 60 and 90/40 when laying down). Its not really a problem unless I get up too fast or don't drink enough water. I don't limit the salt in my diet though because of this.

As for your temp, both the hypotension and my low core body temp are also symptoms of my thyroid disorder. If you research hypo/hyper thyroidism and you find you have any of the symptoms, you might want to get it checked out.

As for the pulse, can't help you there but I don't think its a big deal. As the nurse said, you're young. And you were sitting down. And I applaud you for being super calm right before getting your blood taken. By the way, if the readings weren't taken by a machine, you have to account for operator error.

[Koalamom]

Subbing as mine was 85/55 the other day. My dr said it was fine because I am active but I too dont exercise except for chasing my kids around.

[tanyalynn]

I'm in the same boat, read the Adrenal thread and the Thyroid thread. My BP's higher now, lately it's 95/60-ish, which is better than a couple years ago, my heartrate is still mostly 60-ish or a bit below. Body temp would probably be more thyroid--but read the thread, it's pretty common to have tons of hypothyroid symptoms but not have bloodwork that's drifted so far that it's out of the reference range.

Symptoms tend to overlap, looking back it's sometimes hard to me to see which of my fatigue symptoms are adrenal and which are thyroid. There are subtle differences, and a host of minor oddities that I thought were just me, but it turns out they form a pattern. Both are getting better now for me, it's taken figuring out why my body is stressed and under-nourished to allow this to happen, and then working on correcting those things.

None of this was flagged by conventional doctors, for me I had to have an increase in symptoms that led me to find alternative healthcare providers. They twigged to the low blood pressure (it may drop immediately after you stand up instead of rising like it's supposed to) and they actually listened when I said hey, having a body temp in the 96 or 97 F range is not normal.

[HRJ]

I have low blood pressure, low pulse, and low core body temperature. I have had my thryoid checked extensively. Not just TSH - but T3, T4, thyroid antibodies, etc. They've all been fine.

i do have low progesterone, and I had low DHEA.

Any my acupuncturist was going to have my OB check my cortisol, but then I got pregnant (he already had me on the progesterone).