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What Causes A Consistent Drop In BP Levels?
Question: I have been recording my blood pressure and heart rate for months. I do take atenolol morning and evening.
My heart beat is always about 59/min and quite repeatable. My systolic pressure varies more than the diastolic as both follow an exact pattern daily. The blood pressure drops consistently during the day regardless of activity as the first reading and the last reading always shows a significant drop of about 150 in the morning to 110 at night before retiring to bed. I also have muscle soreness between the left side of my ribs moving around to certain spots. I did have a bypass surgery about six years ago. Always when I apply heat to the ribs the blood pressure drops about 20 points and the soreness feels less. What goes?
My heart beat is always about 59/min and quite repeatable. My systolic pressure varies more than the diastolic as both follow an exact pattern daily. The blood pressure drops consistently during the day regardless of activity as the first reading and the last reading always shows a significant drop of about 150 in the morning to 110 at night before retiring to bed. I also have muscle soreness between the left side of my ribs moving around to certain spots. I did have a bypass surgery about six years ago. Always when I apply heat to the ribs the blood pressure drops about 20 points and the soreness feels less. What goes?
Brief Answer:
No need to worry. My insight is as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to HCM. I understand your concern. Thank you for your question.
All the figures you provided are acceptable and normal. I can see you are on an anti-hypertensive regimen to fight your high blood pressure. One thing should be always remembered, that the blood pressure is the most variable parameter of the human organism. The oscillations you provided are completely normal. You see, there are physiological changes in the hormone levels in blood circulation during a day, in the morning predominate the hormones that "wake us up", so everyone will have a slightly elevated blood pressure in that time of the day. In the evening, there is a predomination of the parasympathetic system which is characterized by the commonly known saying "the rest-and-digest system", which drops the blood pressure. I think you are good with your current therapy and no further changes should be done.
Also, about applying heat - heat has a local effect on the arterial walls, which means it expands the arteries, which makes the blood pressure drop slightly (because of the decreased resistence), I do not think there is anything to be worried about. If you have acute or chronic inflammation of the structures in your ribcage, then you can try a short course, 3 days, of over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofene), to be relieved from the pain.
I hope my answer is helpful. If you have follow-up questions, I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
Dr. Meriton
No need to worry. My insight is as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to HCM. I understand your concern. Thank you for your question.
All the figures you provided are acceptable and normal. I can see you are on an anti-hypertensive regimen to fight your high blood pressure. One thing should be always remembered, that the blood pressure is the most variable parameter of the human organism. The oscillations you provided are completely normal. You see, there are physiological changes in the hormone levels in blood circulation during a day, in the morning predominate the hormones that "wake us up", so everyone will have a slightly elevated blood pressure in that time of the day. In the evening, there is a predomination of the parasympathetic system which is characterized by the commonly known saying "the rest-and-digest system", which drops the blood pressure. I think you are good with your current therapy and no further changes should be done.
Also, about applying heat - heat has a local effect on the arterial walls, which means it expands the arteries, which makes the blood pressure drop slightly (because of the decreased resistence), I do not think there is anything to be worried about. If you have acute or chronic inflammation of the structures in your ribcage, then you can try a short course, 3 days, of over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofene), to be relieved from the pain.
I hope my answer is helpful. If you have follow-up questions, I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
Dr. Meriton
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Yogesh D
Answered by
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