The heart is responsible for feeding oxygen to every organ in the body. To do this the heart needs to have a certain amount of strength to pump the blood from head to feet. The heart is the pump that keeps up the pressure in the arteries and veins so all the body will receive blood when lying down or standing on in whatever position the body is.
When a person has low blood pressure, this means that not enough oxygen rich blood is reaching certain areas or organs in the body. Blood does not stop flowing it simply is not enough to exchange the spent blood for oxygenated blood. The human body has many different sizes of blood vessels, some are large and others are extremely small and blood must flow through all of them.
An example of low pressure to the brain is feeling dizzy or lightheaded when the person stands up suddenly. Normally the heart will compensate the change in pressure very fast, when dizziness occurs, it is probable that the blood pressure is low.
Dehydration is a cause of low blood pressure. Water is the main component in blood and when dehydration takes place the body will replenish lost water in the organs with water from the blood reducing the volume of blood in the body, thus the pressure will fall.
Dehydration may be caused by diarrhea, vomiting, excess exercise, heat and exhaustion. When stomach sick, people must make sure they increase their intake of fluids to maintain and replenish the body’s water supply. Exercise and heat exposure produce sweat which is the way the body cools itself. This water must be replenished and the first symptoms of any type of dehydration are dry lips and dry eyes.
A weakened heart muscle is also a reason for low blood pressure. This may be caused by some disease or by age. Muscles tend to lose elasticity and strength as time goes by and this loss of elasticity makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.
Pericarditis and septicemia are both bacterial and fungal infections inside the body; in the area where the heart is that produce swelling. This swelling pushes against the heart and does not allow it to expand and contract normally to push blood into the body. Internal infections and swelling also make the body send extra blood to these areas in an attempt to protect itself and this can also cause low blood pressure.
A pulmonary embolism, this is a blood clot that blocks an artery in the lungs will also produce low blood pressure when the clot is released into the blood stream. This blood clot will eventually block a major heart artery and the pressure will be reduced drastically producing a heart attack. This is the reason why people with thick blood have to take medication daily to thin it and make it more fluid so it will be easier for the heart to pump it.
The most obvious reason for low blood pressure is moderate to severe bleeding, external or internal. Blood circulates in the body within a closed sealed system, any rupture in that system will allow the blood to flow any and very where around it. Blood inside the body is like water it will go wherever gravity takes it. The heart will eventually stop when there is no more blood flowing through it.
Uncontrolled low blood pressure will produce shock. The person looses consciousness and all the organs start to fail until the heart finally stops. Medication must be taken all the time when low blood pressure is diagnosed. It is very dangerous to stop taking it because the consequences can be extremely serious; examples of this are heart failure, kidney failure and finally death.