Low blood pressure seldom causes true illness. Diseases in which chronic low blood pressure occurs are also rare. All these cases combined are so few in number that they would hardly warrant consideration if it were not for the fact that many people consider themselves disabled because their blood pressure is low, and arrange their lives accordingly. They worry for no adequate reason.
Although the average blood pressure of a group of young adult males is about 120, a certain percentage will have blood pressures of 100 or even 90. In most instances, they are perfectly healthy and are just the low normals of the general population. In fact, persons whose blood pressure tends to be somewhat below the average are apt to live longer than other people.
There are some persons with low blood pressure who have symptoms such as dizziness or faintness, especially when they are changing their positions. These cases are very rare.
In other rare instances, low blood pressure may be associated with definite diseases such as Addison’s disease and inadequate thyroid function. In these cases, the primary disease that causes the low blood pressure usually produces so many other symptoms that the disease is recognized even before the low blood pressure is observed.
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