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Reviewed By: Brunilda Nazario,
SOURCES: 2009 Medical Reference from Medstar Television. Franz Messerli, MD, Cardiologist, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
Edith Joyce is an active older woman who hasn't let a stroke slow her down.
To stay active, I walk, and I have my yoga class. I have my balance and dance class, where I'm headed after this.
Her stroke history, along with heart disease, puts Edith in a tricky category. To protect her brain, blood pressure should be low, but not too low.
When you think about this, the lower the better, there must be something like a 'J' curve, because if your blood pressure is zero, mortality is 100%. Everybody's dead.
Doctor Messerli (MESS er lee) looked at heart disease patients and their diastolic pressures, the lower number of a blood pressure reading. He wanted to see the risk of pressure that's gone too low.
If you have coronary artery disease and your diastolic blood pressure is low, then obviously the coronary circulation gets compromised. Not enough blood is flowing to the heart.
When he plotted the diastolic pressures of these patients, a pattern emerged.
When we lowered blood pressure, diastolic, to below 70, the risk of heart attack doubled. When we lowered it below 60, it quadrupled.
Finding the right balance is difficult, because medicines that reduce blood pressure to protect an organ, like the brain, can lower it dangerously for the heart.
Heart attack may be the first and only sign that indeed the blood pressure is too low.
For now, the study puts 'low pressure risk' on the map. For WebMD, I'm Sandee Lamotte.
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