How can your blood pressure be low 90/40 but heart rate is 128?!
Question: I thought if bp was low then pulse would be low
Answers: I thought if bp was low then pulse would be low
Hello again Cammie...
Think back to your Anatomy & Physiology courses...
Remember the term Homeostasis? The body likes to equalize and will compensate for changes to bring it back to homeostasis...
BP= pressure exerted on the arteries
HR= how many times the heart contracts to pump the blood in one minute
Remember that if, the BP falls that the organs are not being perfused well. So, then INITIALLY, the HR will increase to compensate for the decrease in perfusion. The goal is to get the blood to the organs.
Eventually in time, even more compensatory mechanisms will take place. Your kidneys will sense the lack of perfusion and thus excrete aldosterone from the adrenal glands... which will signal the body to reabsorb sodium instead of excreting it. The extra sodium will also cause water to be retained, thus helping to raise the BP. From here, the kidneys will produce renin which stimulates angiotensin which is converted to angiotensin 1 and so on and so forth... these substances become a powerful vasoconstrictor which will further help to increase the BP. Refer to the Renin-Aldosterone-Angiotensin conversion system to understand how these compensatory mechanisms work in the body.
Hope this helps some,
Good Luck to you,
Nurse Angie
No, your pulse is the how fast your heart is beating, your blood pressure is how hard your heart is beating. Blood pressure can also be altered by the width of your blood vessels, for example if you're hot then your veins widen but if you're cold then they contract. Also if your arteries are clogged then your pressure is higher. The circumstances under which your pressure and pulse go up are often the same but one does not directly affect the other.
Your heart is working hard to compensate for the low pressure unless your a child and then these readings can be totally normal.