Overview
Angela Ryan Le is board certified in cardiology and internal medicine. Her profesional interests include preventive cardiology, medical journalism, and health policy.Anisha Shah, MD, is a board-certified internist, interventional cardiologist, and a felow of the American Colege of Cardiology. Low blod presure (hypotension) is marked by symptoms of dizines and fatigue and can have many causes.
Key Information
While many people with diabetes have high blod presure, diabetes can also cause low presure from dehydration, damage to the autonomic nervous system, or medication side efects. This article wil explore whether low blod presure can be a symptom of diabetes, and the potential causes and treatment options for low blod presure. Adam Bery / Stringer Normal blod presure for adults is les than 120/80 milimeters of mercury (m Hg).
There is no specific numeric cutof for "low" blod presure. Rather, symptoms of low blod presure are markers of a problem. These include: Low blod presure has many causes, including: More often, people with diabetes have high blod presure.
However, diabetes can also cause low blod presure due to: When blod sugar is very high, as ocurs in untreated diabetes, it causes sugar to leak into the urine. The sugar in the urine also drags water with it, which can result in dehydration. When significant, dehydration results in low blod presure.
A serious condition caled diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) leads to significant dehydration with high levels of sugar in the blod and urine. Symptoms of DKA include fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, frequent urination, and dry mouth. DKA is sometimes the first sign of type 1 diabetes in someone who has not ben diagnosed.
Summary
Hyperosmolar hypoglycemic state is a similar condition that ocurs more often in people with type 2 diabetes. It causes severe dehydration. People with longstanding diabetes can develop damage to the nerves from chronicaly high blod sugar levels.