The Link Between Stress and High Blood Pressure: What You Need to Know

Social, economic, and environmental factors make life quite demanding. As such, stress has become so common that it has become part of life. While a bit of stress is normal, constantly stressing can negatively affect your health.

While stress is responsible for many health problems, does it have any connection to high blood pressure?

This post highlights everything you need to know. Longevity Live Paid Content. 

What is High Blood Pressure?

The blood pumped from your heart exerts pressure on your arteries as it travels. But the blood pressure isn’t constant. It rises and falls depending on your activities and health.

When your blood pressure rises beyond what is considered normal and stays that way, it is said you’ve developed high blood pressure, a condition that maintains blood pressure above the normal range.

High blood pressure has many risk factors, and stress is one of them.

Stress and High Blood Pressure

Usually, stress causes a hormonal surge, speeding up your heart rate and consequently raising your blood pressure. When you are in a stressful situation, your heart will beat faster than normal, and that increases your blood pressure, but it’s only temporary.

Researchers are still trying to figure out how stress causes lasting high blood pressure. The conclusion is that stress doesn’t directly cause high blood pressure, but it may be one of the risk factors.

However, some studies say that repeated instances of increased blood pressure due to ongoing stress can cause hypertension.

All in all, stress appears to play a role in the development of high blood pressure, whether directly or indirectly.

Managing Stress to Lower Blood Pressure

Many of the things promoted for stress management are typically prescribed to control blood pressure. It shows an intersection between the two.

Since high blood pressure doesn’t have a cure, treatment involves a combination of lifestyle changes and medications.

Let’s look at the steps you can take to manage stress and lower your blood pressure:

Go With What You Can

Much of our stress stems from responsibilities, and things we want to get done and get closer to our goals. We all have goals, short-term and long-term.

But life is full of curveballs, and things won’t always go your way. That can be a huge source of stress.

If you can manage your expectations and understand that, at the end of the day, you can only give things your best, you will learn to stress less.

Learn to know just how much you can give and when it’s not healthy to push further.

Find a Balance

Lots of people struggle to balance life and work. Both are equally important, but they put more weight on work since it pays the bills and provides a decent life.

The sad reality is that you aren’t truly living if your existence revolves around work, trapping you on a hamster wheel. And there’s nothing more depressing than realizing you don’t have much outside the office.

Do more with life by making it more fulfilling. It’s good for your mental state and overall health.

Ask for Help

Asking for help when you need it is always better than keeping things to yourself. You may not get all the answers from others, but any form of support lessens stress.

Loved ones or people close to you can be a good resource when you need support. That’s why having a social circle you can rely on is critical. Sometimes, it only takes a few pointers from a friend or someone lending you an ear to combat depressive thoughts.

Take Medications

Besides lifestyle adjustments, you can take medications to control your blood pressure. Your doctor may prescribe antidepressants if you have continuous blood pressure spikes due to stress.

You may also need supplements for lowering BP for long-term therapy.

If you’re not a fan of constantly taking medications, you could try herbal medicines with your doctor’s supervision.

Some herbs, such as Chinese hawthorn, River lily, and Oolong tea, have shown the potential to lower blood pressure. Cannabis treatment for high blood pressure is also part of ongoing research on the role of cannabis compounds in the endocannabinoid system (ECS).

Conclusion

So far, studies indicate a clear connection between stress and hypertension. The good thing is that you can beat stress with a healthy lifestyle, and the same applies to high blood pressure.

Who is the author?

Prince Kapoor is a seasoned Marketing Analyst and Blogger at ViralChilly. With his skills, he has been helping fellow marketers and brands worldwide.