'Normal' or 'acceptable' blood pressure varies with
age, state of health and clinical situation. At birth,
a typical blood pressure is 80/50 mmHg. It rises
steadily throughout childhood, so that in a young
adult it might be 120/80 mmHg. As we get older,
blood pressure continues to rise and a rule of
thumb is that normal systolic pressure is age in
years + 100. Blood pressure is lower in late
pregnancy and during sleep.

From this, you can see that a systolic pressure of
160mmHg for an elderly man or 90 mmHg for a
pregnant woman may be quite normal. To judge
whether any particular reading is too high or too
low, we must compare the reading with the
'normal' for that patient.

Do you check your blood pressure regularly?
Mine was low today. I checked, because I felt so ...sleepy.
110 over 64. snore snore snore

Thanks for this info, Edelweis. Your blood pressure is very low; is that normal for you? That's supposed to be good, right?

My best friend has such low blood pressure that the doctor always tells her to add salt to her diet, and she even salts her chips!

It's interesting that blood pressure, at my age, would be 152/? - my doctor would not say that's normal. But it seems that doctors are lowering all the numbers nowadays. A few years ago my blood sugar was fine, but last summer - at the SAME number - they considered it too high because the norms had been adjusted. I imagine that has happened with blood pressure too.

If you can remain at or below 140/90 that is considered mildly elevated. No drugs needed. Eat a banana a day and that helps because of the potassium. I strive for 130/80 and do just fine.
It also varies by person as to weight, and stress level. No two people will be exactly the same.

120/80 is normal. Mine is always low, which my doctor says is good. If that's what he says, I'm listening!

He's so right, the lower the better but normal isn't all that low.

I keep on forgetting what my blood pressure is. It varies during different years. No worries.

Last time they tried to do a blood pressure reading on me was 2 months ago for a big research study for men and women 40-69 yrs. old to look at health factors over a long time period. Should be interesting.

nurse had problems getting the blood pressure band to wrap around my upper arm. It wanted to slide off.

I've never heard overall low blood pressure as a bad thing at all. One just has to be careful getting up real fast from lying in bed for hrs. My father had low blood pressure for a long time. He's never had a heart attack/stroke and he's 81. His prostate cancer has nothing to do with his heart condition. He is at the right weight and has been for decades.

But then ask your doctor.

I would prefer my blood pressure to be on the low side abit...it's a signal for myself that all the cardiovascular workout from cycling is worthwhile. But that's me.

You are absolutely correct Orchid, lower is much better but it does vary according to stress factors and even the weather can have an effect. We are all different and so is our blood pressure.