Low Blood Pressure

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Any of you suffer from low blood pressure/anemia ? Mine was 88 yesterday.What foods do you eat to keep yourself healthy? I have a lot of beans,grains,fiber,dried fruits,olive oil,try to eat three hours before going to sleep,drink water and exercise.However I have to always keep snacks with me and keep hydrated as I've fainted several times before...once even during a Bat Mitzvah (5 hours is WAY too long to be standing up!).

I have low blood pressure and have found that eating the 40-30-30 diet popularized by Barry Sears (The Zone Diet) and Ann Louise Gittleman (The 40-30-30 Phenomenon) keeps me alert, has eliminated fainting and decreases cravings.

You eat a proportion of 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats every meal and snack. It takes some tracking to learn what to eat at first but once you've done it for a bit, it becomes easy to judge what's appropriate.

It's a hormone regulating diet which balances blood sugar and minimizes insulin response which in turn influences all the myriad of other metabolic hormones.

Yeah, I've been dealing with that for about 10 years (had the problem for about 20 years).

As for managing it, every 3 days or so I mix up about a teaspoon of salt in tomato juice and drink it, and then follow with about 750ml of water. And also: drugz, namely midodrine which is also helpful. With the salt I can notice a big difference the next day: less exhaustion, dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, tunnel vision. And the same with the midodrine, except that it works faster (but can make things worse in the long run if you use it too much, so I try to limit that). One of my doctors prescribed florinef, but it made me feel ill/nauseous. It would've been nice if that had worked, as it's hard sometimes to choke down so much salt.

As far as food, I have so many weird food reactions that my diet it's pretty limited on that basis alone. It's pretty high in protein and low on carbs, not that that has been deliberate, though.

thanks for starting this thread OP, I'm undergoing some testing now but it looks like I might be anemic as well, and my blood pressure's always been regular to low. I'm not sure what to do about it yet in terms of diet, for now I've reintroduced fish back into my diet (used to be vegetarian).

I drink a lot of coffee and eat a bowl of oatmeal every morning, if I skip either one of those I get dizzy and unfocused and tired.

I have the fainting problem as well

would be great to hear some more advice/experiences of others.

*edit - also, I've noticed some of you guys mention drinking water... do you think you're abnormally thirsty? I sure am, but dunno how it relates to the anemia thing?

Mine's 80/57, at last doctor's visit.
It's from rarely eating, though.
It was always low (I have a lower body temperature than average, as well)
but it's dropped considerably since my food issues have worsened.

I can remember when the systolic was over 100, at least.

Yeah,I've recently started cooking salt into food.I use Himalayan pink salt,it looks so purdy!
Sometimes I forget though.For breakfast I've been having black rice or brown rice with quinoa and vegetables.The complete protein and amino acids in protein really get my brain and body going in the morning.But I'm usually so hungry that I forget to put some salt in! For lunch I make fresh soup and put salt in then,and for dinner as well.

I'm really supposed to stay away from salt due to some vascular issues.
My vascular disease specialist + vascular disease surgeon are used to dealing with stereotypical Americans who eat tons of fat and salt, and have high blood pressure. There wasn't even a chart to plot mine on, when I go.

I've had a similar experience,doctors and a nutritionist were like,well your blood pressure is so low,it's almost at the comatose state and that when I was a teenager!
The traditional table salt is really unhealthy for you.Celtic sea salt and Himalayan pink salt are the healthiest ones.I'll have to bring my own when I travel! people are so ignorant!

AUGUST 12, 2011
TIMES OF INDIA | Aug 11, 2011, 12.00AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life ... 196702.cms

We all know that fish and chips wouldn't be the same without salt. However, scientists have now claimed that the yearning for salt stimulates the brain like addiction to hard drugs or cigarettes.

They found that the craving triggers the same genes, brain cells and brain connections.

The finding could help explain why many find it so hard to cut back on salt, despite warnings about dangers to blood pressure and heart health.

For the study, Australian and American scientists kept some mice on low-salt diets and gave others a salt drip.

Activity in the creatures' brains was then compared with that in mice fed normally. They also studied the brains of mice that had been starved of salt for three days and then given salty water to drink freely.

When the rodents were in need of salt, brain cells made proteins more usually linked to addiction to substances such as heroin, cocaine and nicotine.

"In this study we have demonstrated that one classic instinct, the hunger for salt, is providing neural organisation that subserves addiction to opiates and cocaine," the Daily Mail quoted Prof Derek Denton, of the University of Melbourne, as saying.

The study also revealed that after salt was taken, the brain believes it has received its fix well before it should be physically possible.

In other words, the changes caused by salt cravings disappeared well before the salt could have left the gut, entered the blood and got to the brain.

"It was amazing to see that the genes that were set 'off' by the loss of sodium were already beginning to get back to the original state within ten minutes," said Prof Denton.

"It is an evolutionary mechanism of high survival value because when an animal is depleted of water or salt it can drink what it needs in five to ten minutes and get out which makes it less susceptible to predators,' he added.

The researchers said that the importance of salt to overall health means that cravings for it form 'an ancient instinct' deeply embedded in the brain. This may explain why we find salty foods so tasty.

The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science


I love Himalayan Salt!