Stress and high blood pressure: What's the connection?

Stress and long-term high blood pressure may not be linked, but taking steps to reduce your stress can improve your general health, including your blood pressure. Discover how.

Stressful situations can cause your blood pressure to spike temporarily, but can stress also cause long-term high blood pressure? Researchers aren't sure yet.

However, doing activities to reduce your blood pressure, such as exercising 30 to 60 minutes a day, can also reduce your stress level. And if you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure, doing activities that can help you manage your stress and improve your health can make a long-term difference in lowering your blood pressure.

Your body's stress response

Stress is often defined as a fight-or-flight response — a moment when your body produces stress hormones in preparation for fighting your stress or running away from it. This stress response was useful for people thousands of years ago when facing a wild animal or another threat. Today, your body responds to stress and perceived danger in much the same way. But instead of confronting wild animals, you may face threats such as getting fired, being stuck in traffic or speaking in public.

While these modern-day events are stressful, you don't usually need to run away or fight. And yet your body still produces a surge of stress hormones. These hormones temporarily increase your blood pressure by causing your heart to beat faster and your blood vessels to narrow.

Linking stress and blood pressure challenges researchers

Even though many researchers have studied the link between high blood pressure and stress, there's no proof stress by itself causes long-term high blood pressure. It may be that other behaviors linked to stress — such as overeating, drinking alcohol and poor sleep habits — cause high blood pressure.

Researchers have also studied the link between heart disease and mental health conditions related to stress, such as anxiety, depression, and isolation from friends and family. While it's thought that these conditions may be linked to coronary artery disease, there's no evidence they're linked to high blood pressure. Instead, it may be that the hormones produced when you're emotionally stressed may damage your arteries, leading to heart disease. It may also be that being depressed or hopeless may cause self-destructive behavior, such as neglecting to take your medications to control high blood pressure or other heart conditions.

High blood pressure risks increase over the long term

Increases in blood pressure related to stress can be dramatic. But once the stressor disappears, your blood pressure returns to normal. However, even temporary spikes in blood pressure — if they occur often enough — can damage your blood vessels, heart and kidneys in a way similar to long-term high blood pressure.

In addition, if you react to stress by smoking, drinking too much alcohol or eating unhealthy foods, you increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Stress-reducing activities can lower your blood pressure

While reducing stress might not directly lower blood pressure over the long term, using strategies to manage your stress can improve your health in other ways. Mastering stress management techniques can lead to other behavior changes — including those that reduce your blood pressure.

When looking for ways to manage stress, remember that you have many options. For example:

Simplify your schedule. If you consistently feel rushed, take a few minutes to review your calendar and to-do lists. Look for activities that take up your time, but aren't very important to you. Schedule less time for these activities, or eliminate them completely.
Breathe to relax. Making a conscious effort to deepen and slow down your breathing can help you relax.
Exercise. Physical activity is a natural stress buster. Just be sure to get your doctor's OK before starting a new exercise program, especially if you've already been diagnosed with high blood pressure. Exercise is one stress-reducing activity that can actually lower your systolic blood pressure by as much as 5 to 10 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).
Try yoga or meditation. Not only can yoga strengthen your body and help you relax, but it may also lower your systolic blood pressure by 5 mm Hg or more.
Get plenty of sleep. Being sleep deprived can make your problems seem worse than they really are.
Shift your perspective. When dealing with problems, resist the tendency to complain. Acknowledge your feelings about the situation, and then focus on finding solutions.

The goal is to discover what works for you. Be open-minded and willing to experiment. Choose your strategies, take action and start enjoying the benefits.