Is 108/60 Blood Pressure Good, Low, or Normal?

A reading of 108/60 falls within what most clinical guidelines consider normal blood pressure, but it sits near the lower boundary, especially on the diastolic (bottom number) side. For a young, active, otherwise healthy person, this reading is often a sign of good cardiovascular fitness. For an older adult or someone with heart disease, that diastolic of 60 can warrant a closer look. The answer depends less on the numbers themselves and more on who you are, how you feel, and what your baseline typically looks like.

What the Two Numbers Actually Tell You

The top number (systolic, 108 in this case) reflects the pressure your blood exerts against artery walls when your heart contracts. The bottom number (diastolic, 60) reflects pressure between beats, when the heart is relaxing and refilling. Standard guidelines classify anything below 120/80 as normal and anything below about 90/60 as low (hypotension). At 108/60, both numbers land inside the normal window, though the diastolic is right at the edge of where some clinicians start paying attention.

The gap between your systolic and diastolic readings is called pulse pressure. In this case, 108 minus 60 gives you a pulse pressure of 48, which is comfortably in the typical range of roughly 40 to 60. A wide pulse pressure (above 60 or so) can signal stiffening of the large arteries, a change that becomes more common with age and raises cardiovascular risk independently of either number alone.¹ A pulse pressure of 48 does not raise that flag.

Why the Diastolic Number Gets Extra Scrutiny at 60

Most people fixate on the systolic number because elevated systolic pressure is the stronger predictor of stroke and heart attack in the general population. But diastolic pressure has its own story, and 60 is where that story gets interesting. The coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle itself, receive most of their flow during diastole, when the heart is between contractions. If diastolic pressure drops too low, the driving pressure behind coronary blood flow can fall with it.²

This matters most for people who already have coronary artery disease or who are elderly. Research on older adults with cardiovascular disease has found a J-shaped relationship between diastolic pressure and mortality: risk drops as diastolic pressure comes down from high levels, but then rises again once it dips to 60 or below. In one analysis, a diastolic pressure at or below 60 was an independent predictor of death in elderly patients with existing cardiovascular disease, even after accounting for other risk factors and medication use.³ That does not mean 60 is dangerous for everyone. It means the context around the number matters enormously.

In a younger, otherwise healthy population, the picture is different. A large US study looking at people with normal systolic pressure (below 130) found that antihypertensive medication was a major factor pushing diastolic readings below 60, but among those whose diastolic was naturally low, the added risk did not increase further.⁴ In other words, a naturally low diastolic in a healthy person is a very different thing from a diastolic that has been pushed low by aggressive medication in someone with heart disease.

The Fitness Connection

If you exercise regularly, especially endurance activities like running, cycling, or swimming, a reading of 108/60 may simply be your body working efficiently. Athletes tend to have lower resting blood pressure than non-athletes, and the diastolic side of that equation is part of the picture. A study comparing young endurance athletes, non-endurance athletes, and non-athletes found that diastolic blood pressure was meaningfully lower in both groups of athletes compared to their non-athletic peers.⁵ These athletes also showed slower resting heart rates, another hallmark of cardiovascular conditioning.

Running in particular has solid evidence behind it. A meta-analysis of running interventions found that in healthy subjects, running lowered resting systolic pressure by about 4 points and resting diastolic pressure by about 3 points on average. In people who already had high blood pressure, the reductions were even larger, around 5 to 6 points on each side.⁶ So if you run or do other regular cardio and your blood pressure sits around 108/60, your training is likely part of the explanation.

How Sex, Age, and Hormones Shift the Baseline

Women, particularly younger women, tend to have lower blood pressure than men of the same age. Part of this comes down to how the nervous system interacts with blood vessels differently in premenopausal women. In young women, the body’s vasodilator mechanisms (which relax blood vessels) effectively offset the constricting signals from the sympathetic nervous system, keeping blood pressure lower. As women age and move through menopause, this protective offset fades, and the relationship between nerve activity and blood pressure starts to look more like the pattern seen in men.⁷ This is one reason a reading of 108/60 is especially common and unremarkable in younger women.

Age pushes things in the opposite direction over time. Systolic pressure tends to climb as arteries stiffen with age, while diastolic pressure often peaks in middle age and then drifts downward. An older adult with a reading of 108/60 may have a very different story behind those numbers than a 25-year-old with the same reading: the older person’s arteries may be stiffer, producing a widening pulse pressure that just happens to land at those numbers on a given day. That is why the same numerical reading can be reassuring in one person and worth investigating in another.

Pregnancy and Temporarily Lower Readings

If you are pregnant and notice your blood pressure running lower than usual, this is expected physiology. During pregnancy, blood volume increases substantially, and the body compensates by decreasing systemic vascular resistance, meaning the blood vessels relax and widen. Cardiac output goes up, driven mainly by a faster heart rate and, to a lesser degree, a larger stroke volume per beat.⁸ The net result is that blood pressure often drops in the first and second trimesters before gradually climbing back toward pre-pregnancy levels in the third. A reading of 108/60 during pregnancy is common and generally not a concern unless you are experiencing symptoms like persistent dizziness or fainting.

Everyday Things That Can Push Blood Pressure Down Temporarily

Blood pressure is not a fixed number. It shifts throughout the day in response to meals, hydration, posture, temperature, and stress. Some of the temporary dips people notice are perfectly benign; others can cause real symptoms.

Eating: Blood pressure can dip after a meal, especially a large one, because blood flow redirects toward the digestive tract. This postprandial drop is more pronounced in older adults and can be significant enough to cause lightheadedness or falls. Research has documented systolic drops of more than 15 points after eating in some older individuals.⁹
Dehydration: Losing fluid can affect blood pressure, though the relationship is more nuanced than people assume. In young healthy adults, mild dehydration showed a significant relationship with lower central systolic pressure, while the effect on diastolic pressure was not statistically significant.¹⁰ Still, severe dehydration from illness, heat, or prolonged exercise can drop blood pressure enough to cause symptoms.
Standing up quickly: A sudden shift from lying down or sitting to standing can temporarily reduce the amount of blood returning to the heart, causing a brief blood pressure drop. When this is severe or chronic, it is called orthostatic hypotension. For most people, the body corrects itself in seconds, but in those with autonomic dysfunction or certain medications, the dip can be large enough to cause dizziness or fainting.

A single home reading of 108/60 taken right after a hot shower, a big meal, or a long run may not represent your actual resting baseline. If you are concerned, measure at the same time of day, sitting quietly for five minutes beforehand, on several different days. The pattern matters more than any single snapshot.

Medical Conditions That Can Lower Blood Pressure

While most people reading 108/60 on their monitor have nothing to worry about, persistently low blood pressure with symptoms can occasionally point toward an underlying condition. Thyroid disorders are one example. Hypothyroidism, where the thyroid is underactive, typically causes decreased cardiac output and increased vascular resistance, which can narrow the pulse pressure and alter overall blood pressure regulation.¹¹ Adrenal insufficiency, heart valve problems, and certain infections can also produce persistently low readings. But these conditions come with other symptoms that are usually more noticeable than the blood pressure number itself: fatigue, weight changes, exercise intolerance, or feeling faint on standing.

Medications are another common cause. Blood pressure drugs, obviously, but also some antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, alpha blockers prescribed for prostate issues, and certain Parkinson’s disease drugs can lower blood pressure as a side effect. If you recently started a new medication and your readings have dropped, that is worth mentioning to your prescriber.

What the Treatment Trials Tell Us About “How Low Is Too Low”

One of the reasons there is no bright line separating “good” from “too low” is that the major clinical trials were designed to test how far to lower blood pressure in people with hypertension, not to define the ideal number for everyone. The Hypertension Optimal Treatment (HOT) trial, one of the largest studies to directly compare diastolic targets, found that the lowest incidence of major cardiovascular events occurred at an achieved diastolic pressure of about 83, and the lowest cardiovascular mortality occurred around 87. Going lower than that did not increase harm in the overall population, though the benefits plateaued.¹² For people with diabetes in that trial, lower targets did show clear benefit.

In older adults who had already experienced a small stroke, more aggressive systolic lowering (to around 125 versus 137) was linked to a significant reduction in vascular death, though the effect on recurrent stroke was less clear-cut.¹³ The overall takeaway from the treatment literature is that for most people, lower blood pressure within the normal range is associated with less cardiovascular disease, up to a point. That point depends on age, existing heart disease, and whether the low pressure is being achieved naturally or through medication. For a healthy person sitting at 108/60 without medication, the trial data offers no reason for alarm.

Symptoms That Should Change Your Assessment

Numbers on a cuff are only half the story. A blood pressure of 108/60 with no symptoms is a fundamentally different situation from 108/60 with chronic dizziness, frequent near-fainting, persistent fatigue, blurred vision, or difficulty concentrating. If you consistently feel lightheaded when standing, need to sit down after mild exertion, or feel like you are going to pass out in warm environments, those symptoms deserve medical evaluation regardless of whether your blood pressure technically falls within “normal” limits.

Conversely, many people discover a reading of 108/60 during a routine checkup, feel perfectly fine, and then start worrying because they have read that diastolic below 60 or systolic below 110 might be a problem. For someone without symptoms and without a history of heart disease, this reading is typically a non-issue. Blood pressure varies from person to person, and some people simply run lower. If you feel well and your readings are consistent over time, you are likely looking at your personal normal.

Practical Tips for Tracking at Home

If you are monitoring your blood pressure at home and regularly seeing numbers around 108/60, a few things are worth keeping in mind. First, upper-arm cuffs are more accurate than wrist devices, and the cuff size matters. A cuff that is too small will overestimate your reading; one that is too large will underestimate it. Second, sit with your back supported and your arm resting at heart level. Crossing your legs or letting your arm hang down can change the reading by several points.

Third, take readings at the same time each day, and take two or three readings a minute apart. The first reading tends to be higher due to a mild stress response, so many clinicians recommend averaging the second and third readings. And fourth, keep a simple log. A single reading of 108/60 is meaningless in isolation. A pattern of readings clustering around the same range over weeks tells your doctor something useful. If you notice your diastolic consistently dipping below 55 or your systolic dropping below 100, and especially if this is a new trend accompanied by symptoms, bring the log to an appointment. The pattern will help your clinician figure out whether this is your normal, a medication effect, or something worth investigating.