High Blood Pressure Caused by Stress

Stress is an unfortunate fact of life, and everyone deals with high stress from time to time. But a consistently high stress level can negatively impact your health. Stress is a known risk factor for high blood pressure.

Description

• Every time your heart beats and relaxes, your arteries sustain blood pressure or force. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 during the beat (this is called systolic pressure) and less than 80 during rest (or diastolic pressure).

Identification

• High blood pressure, or hypertension, is when the systolic pressure is 140 or higher and the diastolic is 90 or higher. Periods of stress can cause sudden jumps in blood pressure, and prolonged stress may be a contributing factor in chronic hypertension.

Cause

• The causes of essential (or primary) hypertension are largely unknown, although there are known risk factors such as family history, race, age, obesity, a high sodium diet, inactivity and stress.

Theories/Speculation

• While it is a risk factor and it can cause temporary blood pressure spikes, stress is not considered a direct cause of hypertension, according to the American Heart Association. However, consistently high stress levels can lead to unhealthy habits, such as overeating, that can contribute to high blood pressure.

Considerations

• Though you can't control some risk factors, you can manage some of them, including your stress levels.

Prevention/Solution

• In addition to seeing your doctor and managing other controllable risk factors, take active steps to reduce your stress. For example try talking about issues with a trusted adult, writing in a journal, engaging in relaxing activities daily, and reducing your responsibilities.