Can long-term anemia cause high blood pressure?
Disease description:
Long-term anemia causes dizziness and blurred vision upon standing up after squatting for a while. Recently, my blood pressure was measured and turned out to be high. Could long-term anemia lead to elevated blood pressure? Is there a relationship between the two?
Doctor's answer (1)
Dr. Liu Feng
In general, long-term anemia does not cause high blood pressure; rather, it may lead to low blood pressure or a tendency toward hypotension.
Anemia refers to insufficient quantity or quality of red blood cells in the blood, resulting in inadequate oxygen supply to body tissues. In such cases, the body may initiate various physiological responses to compensate for the oxygen deficiency, including increasing heart rate and cardiac output. Although this compensatory mechanism can help maintain tissue oxygenation to some extent, it causes reduced vascular resistance, which may lead to lower blood pressure or sustained low blood pressure levels.
Hypertension is usually the result of multiple factors acting together, including genetics, diet, and lifestyle. An increase in blood pressure solely caused by anemia is uncommon. Severe anemia may instead manifest as hypotension, as the heart is unable to pump blood effectively throughout the body, leading to a drop in blood pressure.
Patients with long-term anemia are advised to undergo regular physical examinations and actively treat the underlying causes of anemia to promote recovery.
