Q: I am a 61 year old man in excellent condition but I have been on blood pressure meds since I was 30. I have always had a very low resting heart rate of between 36 and 42. Could my high blood pressure be related to my low pulse rate?
A: Certain drugs used to treat high blood pressure cause a low pulse rate. Good physical conditioning is associated with a lower resting heart rate. It is likely that both your medicine and your physical conditioning account for your low pulse.
Further Reading:
About High Blood Pressure & Low Pulse – Livestrong.com
(8 votes, average: 4.13 out of 5)
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Unless I am reading the question wrong, he wasn’t asking how he got the low pulse – he was asking if the low pulse was causing the HBP.
There are BP meds that take your pulse down and are supposed to lower your BP. I am taking Metopolol and it took my pulse down so much that I was given a medicine to up it so that I could go through my colonoscopy. I take 1/4 of that med now.
1.Your pulse goes up because your heart pumps blood aorund your body faster then it gets oxygen to your muscles.2. You need to exercise every day because if you don’t, blood can’t get aorund your body and your heart won’t pump as well.3.Jumping because it has been proven that it makes our pulse the fastest and it will keep us healthy.
i agree with Church…..he was asking something different than the answer addressed. I also have a very low heart rate….am athletic, etc…..what is the answer? Thanks
Be careful when U have your blood pressure checked at the doctors. My blood pressurs readings where very good at home checked every week. I went for a physical and after waiting 2 hours to see the doctor my blood presure was to high plus scare tatics didn’t help. The doctor over reacted and I ended up on 4 medicines. Many people have “white coat Hypertntion”,which I knew nothing about at the time. Your blood pressure can go up 20-30 points when taking in a medical suroundings by a doctor or nurse.
Agreed My blood pressure at home is always lower than when checked at doctors.I to have a low heart rate. Especially after a long wait.
I agree with Church & Tom that the question asked wasn’t properly addressed. I did, however, find the Livestrong.com link more informative. My impressions have been that Dr. Rowena is generally (and understandably) cautious about offering too much detailed information for fear people may rely too heavily on her words. Threfore I think it is helpful when links from various sources relevant to the problem are included in her response.
People are different. High BP is sometimes a completely natural outcome, and is not, in itself, abnormal. The pressure exerted by your blood, on your blood vessels, is often an outcome of the obstacles encountered as the blood moves. If your arteries are narrow or inflexible throughout, or in certain regions, your blood pressure will rise to permit blood to squeeze through. In any case, it also seems likely to me, that the blood vessels in each body, differ from those in other bodies, in their ability to withstand HBPressure, to some degree, without unpleasant consequences. My blood pressure (I’ve suffered from angina for 16 years) is very labile. My pressure varies from 105/60 to 150/85+, in various medical circumstances, and in the absence of alarming or other obvious hypertensive generating conditions. As long as my BP doesn’t rise too high, in relatively normal circumstances, I’d rather have a slightly elevated pressure, without medication, than a very low pressure with medication.
Agree with John Polifonio. I would be classified these days as ‘pre-hyertensive’ and have been so for 20 years. Everything else is normal or below average for risk, including my weight and fitness and no family history of heart attacks or strokes. Yet, doctors dearly would like to see me on meds. Why jeopardize this situation with medication? regardless what doctors say medications do cause side effects. What is said to be ‘mild’ can be actually quite annoying.
Also, an 85 year-old gentleman told me that his doc said he was unable to ‘properly’ measure his bloodpressure and puls rate due to his aged arteries.
If arteries do what the skin of the back of the hands of older people does when you pinch it, the this makes sense. The elasticity deteriorates considerably not only due to the effects of sun damage but also simply due to aging. So this docs argument may actually make sense.
An 85-year old neighbour has been given a stroner BP med and he’s been flat on his back for a week now because he feels so unwell with dull headaches and tingliness in lips and face. Since I am not a doc I can’t advise him, but would not be surprised if this was caused by the BP meds, although the doc says ‘no’.
🙂 apolpogies for the typos
Everything else held constant, a higher pulse generates a lower blood pressure than a low pulse.
Yes, veins can be hard to get into, they can wiggle or move away from a nledee once it is introduced, thus the probing to catch it. You may have a small bruise or tenderness but other wise, your vein will recover quickly. This experience will not hinder you from donating blood in the future. Donating blood is one of the single most important things a person can do to help others. You don’t realize it, but you are saving a life every time you donate.
some other causes for elevated blood pressure are inflammation in the body such as: unclean colon, needing dental work, depression, and unreleased anger.
My pops is 91, still smokes and has high BP. So do I,@ age 62, but I don’t smoke. On meds, but BP for the most part is controlled. Don’t understand the one gentleman who said he’d rather have slightly higher BP and no meds; what’s the aversion to meds??? Sounds like ego talking. But, agree w/ other gentleman who said that high BP may just be a result of where your BP lands, so to speak, and may not be high in comparison w/ your physiology. Capeche?
My experience with the obvious relationship between my heart rate and bp is now being reinforced with the readings shown in my wife’s bp log. I take med’s she does not, her normal bp 125/70 to 135/80 is always accompanied by a heart rate between 80 and 90 (she is 75). Her bp readings when her heart rate is measured below 80 is elevated, usually between 140/90 to 160/100. Asked my cardiologist but he has no real answer. During light exercise and subsequently my bp goes down and my heart rate goes up.
I think the question was answered.
As far as I know in a healthy person with normal blood pressure the blood pressure may change, i.e. go higher with physical activity, the pulse rate will also increase, then both BP and pulse rate go back to normal after and stays normal for the rest of the day.
In hypertensive people blood pressure and pulse will rise during exercise, come down to normal after, then rise again to above normal after a few hours to its hypertensive or pre-hypertensive state.
The idea with exercising is to get to the stage where BP and pulse rate go back to ‘normal’ and stay there after exercising is finished.
If blood pressure goes up with lower pulse rate than something is not quite right. Athletes or very fit people do have normal blood pressure as well as low pulse rates (without medication).
An indication of fitness is also the recovery rate within a minute of stopping exercise from max. heart rate. In fit and healthy people the pulse rate should drop between 22 and 28 beats per minute in that minute immediately after exercise.
My resting pulse in the morning is 50, the lowest pulse rate during the night is 42. As you get older this actually may become a concern if you are not an athlete and I was told by a nurse that this needs to be checked out by a cardiologist, although at 61 it may not be a concern ‘yet’.
Please note that I am not a doctor. My brother is a sports coach and I have most of this information from him.
My heartrate was normal before going on beta blockers years ago. It went down into the 40s then. Even when I changed the atenonal for something else, my heart rate stayed low in the 50s. I think the beta blocker had something to do with this. I got off it after years and got another med that included a diuretic to which the doctor added a third–dynicirc, a channel blocker, which tends to cause gas. With these meds I got faint at times with low BP. Then I began with palpitations. I asked the dr to not take the diuretic+? and was able to cut that out but still take the channel blocker. Now I have been diagnosed as having sick sinus syndrome in which the heart rate goes down into the 40s and seems to palpitate. As long as I exercise, it is only a few; if I don’t I can have it off and on all day. It is an electrical problem with the heart rate and will need a pacemaker in later years. Another doctor tells me it could have been caused by the medication over time.
The person who questions why one would not want to take medications, should check them out. Over the long run they do not increase the life span and can have ugly side effects. The best bet is a change of lifestyle, and it is less costly and dangerous.
1.Because the heart pumps blood around the body.The blood has oxgen is pmepud all around the body which has energy in it.2.You need to exercise every day to keep your body fit and healthy.3.Swimming because you use your arms and legs equally.
Although I am not a doctor or have any real knowledge of this subject, my thought is that it might be necessary for the BP to rise if the pulse rate is typically low in order to get the same volume of blood through the system. Since there is less blood pumping per minute, it would need more force to get the same end result. I am considering this to be the standard for the person, not a transient event. Again, I am not a doctor but this is just my thought as to a possibility and thinking that it may not be such a bad thing.
In resposnse to Ella’s comments:
This is the reason I try to stay off meds for as long as I possibly can, although my doctor and cardiologist think pre-hypertension must be treated for ‘prevention’. At this stage the (long-term) side effects of medication reported by some patients far outweigh the benefits in my personal situation. But this is my own opinion and I have to take full responsibility for the decision not to take medication. I also believe women tend to react differently to men with men having fewer medication related side-effects. But this too is anecdotal. I just suspect this from my many friends who are on medication.
I too was put on Beta Blockers about ten years ago, despite telling the cardiologist about my already low pulse rate. To my great horror, a day after I popped the first pill, after a 6 miles fairly brisk walk, my pulse rate was still 50 with blood pressure sky-high and I did not feel good at all. The doctor then told me he’ll give me another medication to ‘speed up’ the pulse rate again which then should have brought the blood pressure down and ‘balance’ the system again.
That’s when I bolted. I felt this was like tying down a horse (the effect of the Beta Blocker) to make it slow down and flogging it at the same time (the effect of a medication to make it go faster again) but keeping the horse tied down.
Most, if not all responses on forums like this are from personal experiences and personal opinions. Ultimately, if we don’t want to take medication it is our own responsibility. If we do take medication it will also end up as our responsibility, although it will be under the guidance of a doctor.
What I find valuable with these forums is that patients report the benefits and side-effects medication has for them. I believe long-term side-effects for the everyday patient are under-reported or ignored by doctors due to possibly not being able to do anything to alleviate the side-effects.(“long-term” = 20 – 30 years, not just one or two years when under trial conditions or as long as the medication is under patent).
I too would advocate a healthy, possibly full vegan/vegetarian life style, ensuring that body weight stays within acceptable limits, not to smoke at all, not to drink to excess, and daily moderate exercise, regardless whether a person is on medication or not.
It must not be forgotten that some people simply must take medication when all else fails.
@ Steffan Miller. Yes, I too thought that at some stage, but learnt since (from my sports coach brother) that this is not correct, although the idea with blood volume makes sense and is possibly necessary to keep the heart pumping and enough oxygen supply to heart and brain. Our bodies respond to what is needed in order to keep going. When a low pulse rate causes a higher blood pressure and vice versa something is not quite right. It could be an obstruction in the arteries,cholesterol, or some other reason. Or the heart becomes ‘lazy’. If it slows down the reaction is, in order to keep blood and oxygen supply flowing, to increase the pressure. But, in healthy people this is not the case, and should not happen.
Trust me, a resting pulse rate of 36 to 42 is dangerously low. This can obviously result in lots of problems. Beta blockers are very effective, but when your pulse rate gets below 50, you are asking for trouble, like clots, cold extremities, and much more. Perhaps this individual should reduce medication to get to a more acceptable resting pulse rate, like > 50.
I have been on a beta blocker for years, and work out on treadmill 5 times a week for 80 minutes. I brisk walk at about 3.2 miles per hour at a 4% incline. My pulse rate never goes above 115 when I do these workouts, and my resting rate never goes below 50.
Once again, living at the 36 to 42 level is dangerous, in my opinion. Maybe reduce or eliminate the beta blocker, but do so under very close supervison of trusted physician. Maybe you should use Resperate or Zoma 2 to control blood pressure.
Alot of folks think that you can never get off blood pressure meds, but this is bunk. This individual may be better off without meds, but trying this must be carefully monitored and controlled. Matt
Totally agree with you, M. Perry. A nurse actually told me once (I was in hospital four years ago, with a virus that affected my heart) that such low pulse rates, especially in the elderly, can cause ‘heart block’. It must be investigated why the pulse rate is so low. Even in fit and healty older people it is necessary to keep an eye on this. I do, because of my realtively low resting heart rate and my age (61).
“Everything else held constant, a higher pulse generates a lower blood pressure than a low pulse.”
Uh…no. That’s the very reason drugs specifically designed to lower heart rate are used in hypertensive patients. I think you have that backwards.
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