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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.
By Mayo Clinic staffStressful 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.
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