Normal Blood Pressure?

Okay so I visited my aunt (who is very into health stuff) last weekend and she measured my blood pressure. It came to 105/slightly below 40. She just said that that’s very, very low. Are there any side effects of low blood pressure or is it just a good thing? I’m 17 by the way.

Low blood pressure at your age is not a bad thing. It tends to go up as you get older. 90/60 is generally considered the low end of the “normal” range, but there are healthy people with even lower numbers. If you feel fine, don’t worry, although it might be a good idea to discuss it with your doctor during your next visit (assuming you get periodic checkups).

Still, a diastolic reading below 40 is damn low; I would suspect a misreading. Or is it possible you were dehydrated at the time?

[quote]Fat Man wrote:
Okay so I visited my aunt (who is very into health stuff) last weekend and she measured my blood pressure. It came to 105/slightly below 40. She just said that that’s very, very low. Are there any side effects of low blood pressure or is it just a good thing? I’m 17 by the way.[/quote]

That blood pressure is normal, but could be too low for an individual if they are symptomatic (lightheaded, dizzy, faint feeling). At 17-years old, a blood pressure like that is the norm.

go get it checked again somewhere else. For me they usually they use a sleeve that is too small and I come out with a reading of around 190/140. when they use the right sleeve though its usually around 120/75. So conversly I assume that if the sleeve that was used was too big it can give a low bp reading.

Cool, thanks guys. Well I feel fine so I don’t think I’ll bother to check it out again. My mom says it runs in the family.

If you don’t mind, I was wondering what the two numbers stand for (in my case 105/40), what does it mean if they’re very close together or separated by a large number?

[quote]jwillow wrote:
Still, a diastolic reading below 40 is damn low; I would suspect a misreading. Or is it possible you were dehydrated at the time?[/quote]

Well, at least not severely - I think I would have noticed that.

The first figure is the pressure when your heart beats, the second is the pressure between beats.

If they’re close together, it means there’s not much difference in pressure between beating and not beating.

Your value is VERY low, do you ever feel light headed if you get up too quickly?

120/80 is normal. I’ve never seen anyone with pressure as low as yours. I would get it checked out, just to be sure. Just becaue you feel fine means nothing. My dad feels fine and he’s obese with type 2 diabetes.