Bp And Hr Question

[roxie]

hey! does anyone understand how sometimes our bp and pulse can be normal and we skill have symptoms? or at least I still have symptoms of heachaces, nausea, fatigue and dizziness?

If I'm at the dr's an my vitals are anywher near normal he thinks i must be doing great but so often I feel horrible...i just don't understand

bananas

[Broken_Shell]

Hi Bananas,

How I wish I had an answer to your question! I wonder the same thing. What I think is that we have symptoms based more on inappropriate blood flow distribution, for example to our brains, GI tracts, etc. that is not reflected in peripheral BPs. However, the symptoms we experience can also be related to the incorrect mix of autonomic neurotransmitters and other aspects of the "checks and balances" systems in our bodies that don't work right, and these things can occur independent of our blood pressures.

Broken_Shell

[erik]

Yeah, it seems that docs don't have a full explanation of or insight into all this and how things relate to each other. One tries to treat things, like abnormal BP. Since it's one of the few visible signs, some docs expect everything else to fall in line if the BP shows normal! Not so!

[Mrs. Burschman]

I would guess (and I'm just guessing) that it's because blood pressure and heart rate are only two of the multitude of things "run" by the autonomic nervous system. Those might be normal, but other stuff could be off. Just a guess.

Amy

[janiedelite]

Yeah, for the last few weeks my BP and pulse have sometimes even been normal on standing! But I'm so nauseated from autonomic problems right now. It seems sometimes one system recalibrates while another system goes haywire!

[ramakentesh]

POTS is an orthostatic disorder where blood pressure can appear normal, drop slightly or actually increase orthostatically and this is not necessarily connected to the symptoms experienced (similar with heart rate, although this is more unusual).

In some patients its not that blood pressure is dropping, but that the brain is undergoing a cerebral vasospasm caused by inappropriate cerebral blood regulation, inappropriate vasoconstriction from excessive sympathetic activity or a number of other problems. In many, blood flow can even appear normal, but the velocity spikes in cerebral blood perfusion are abnormal causing variations in cerebral blood perfusion on standing that also manifests as dizziness.

In some patients there is parasympathetic withdrawl and dizziness without any discernable changes in blood pressure or heart rate, yet cerebral hypoperfusion results in symptoms for these patients.

The key isnt so much blood pressure in our cases, its the amount of blood going through the carotid arteries during orthostatic stress.