Can I reduce my blood pressure by draining some blood?
In: Biology
only if you drain enough blood to be at the point of almost dying. Your body will try really hard to keep your blood flowing to your heart, brain, and other vital organs as long as it can. Decreasing blood pressure happens at stage 3 (out of 4) shock from blood loss. Before that, the heart will increase how hard/much it pumps, and your blood vessels will constrict to keep pressure up. As a result, the blood pressure will increase temporarily before it falls again. And then, you die. 0/10, would not recommend.
Yes, temporarily. Blood pressure drops with blood loss. If it drops below a certain point then your heart can’t get blood to the brain. The body doesn’t like this, and so will typically respond by making you get very thirsty so it could then add the fluid you drink to your circulatory system.
Draining blood doesn’t address the systemic problems that typically are responsible for high blood pressure like a high sodium diet or stress. If the problems leading to high blood pressure aren’t taken care of, it’ll just return soon after. It’s a very poor temporary solution to the problem.
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