Blood Pressure Problems Are Associated With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – Monitoring Your Blood Pressure Can Be Very Important.

 

 

Why Monitoring Your Blood Pressure Is So Important If You Have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – by Catherine Morgan

Not all people with Neuro-Cardiogenic Syncope (also known as Neurally Mediated Hypotension) will also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but a large percent of people who suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome do have Neuro-Cardiogenic Syncope.

Just like people with Diabetes use a monitor to check their blood sugar levels, it can be helpful for people with CFS to monitor their blood pressure. I recommend that if you suffer from CFS and also have symptoms of dizziness, then monitoring your Blood Pressure on a daily basis should become part of your routine. This is because, like many of the symptoms associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome……you may have good days and bad days. So, being able to pinpoint a corresponding blood pressure to a specific symptom (ie: dizziness), can be important information for both you and your doctor.

Since it is relatively inexpensive to purchase a small battery operated blood pressure monitor, it is now very easy for us to routinely check our own blood pressure, without the need to go into the doctors office. By doing this you can keep a daily record of your blood pressure and heart rate, and then bring it with you to your doctor appointments, this will help your physician to make more informed decisions regarding your treatment.

If your doctor suspects that your symptoms may be associated with Neuro-Cardiogenic Syncope or another Blood Pressure related problem, more test will be needed. In my case, I was suffering from near black-outs, and black-outs; before the doctors kept me in the hospital to run more test to attempt to figure out what was causing this problem. Once the doctors ruled out just about every other medical condition known to man, I was given a Tilt Table Test.

The only way to know for sure if you have this condition is by having a Tilt Table Test……which really should be called The Torture Table Test. I say that because; if you have a positive result from this test, you will have blacked-out….and when you come to, have no idea what has happened. Believe me, it is a terrifying experience, that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. When I would black-out at home, I would have no idea what had happened…..but coming to in a familiar place was much less traumatic, than coming to with a bunch of doctors and nurses poking and prodding at you. For a few seconds, that actually felt like a few minutes, I thought I was dying and these doctors were trying to save me. Even the time I came to confused with my head bleeding, and needing to go to the hospital to have my head stapled closed…..I can honestly say….that was less traumatic than the Tilt Table Test. Although, I guess I shouldn’t be scaring anyone who may need to have this test. They (the doctors) do tell you that you may pass-out and be confused….but since you don’t remember them saying that, telling you really does no good. But, when this test was positive, I was told that I had Neuro-Cardiogenic Syncope, and it was associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (explaining my many other symptoms).

Another reason it is important to monitor your blood pressure is because symptoms of high blood pressure can be very much the same as symptoms of low blood pressure, but the treatment is very much different. For example; In the beginning my symptoms of dizziness were related to my blood pressure being too low……with my doctors permission I would eat foods high in salt (chips, popcorn, soup, etc) instead of taking medication in order to combat my low blood pressure. The only problem with that was; I was not also monitoring my blood pressure, and at one point my symptom of dizziness began to be related to an elevated blood pressure (not a low blood pressure). But since I was unaware, I continued to increase my salt intake, at a time when I should have been decreasing it. The worse my symptom of dizziness got, the more salt I ate…..making my blood pressure dangerously high. It wasn’t until a routine doctor appointment, that my problem was discovered, and by this time my blood pressure was at a dangerously high rate. Consequently, I now have additional irreversible cardiac problems due to the extended period of time that I had undiagnosed high blood pressure.

My story is an example of why it is so important to monitor your blood pressure, the funny thing (or not so funny thing), is that I had a blood pressure monitor that entire time, I just didn’t think to use it. Don’t let this happen to you. Heart disease is a leading cause of death in women, it is important that we not overlook symptoms in CFS that might also be related to additional medical conditions.

Image Credit: Detail of A Sick Girl by Mikhail Nesterov, 1928. Oil on canvas. Museum of Maxim Gorky, Moscow, Russia.

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ALSO SEE:

INFORMATION ON CFS THAT YOU CAN PRINT OUT AND GIVE TO YOUR DOCTOR, WRITTEN BY DOCTORS, FOR DOCTORS.

VIDEOS THAT EXPLAIN CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME, YOU CAN PASS THEM ON TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

TIPS FOR LIVING WITH CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME.

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