Heart

You may have heard that emotional responses, such as stress and anxiety, are associated with high blood pressure or hypertension. Stress and anxiety are said to cause hypertension. In addition, the condition of people with hypertension is also said to get worse if they experience stress and anxiety. Is that true? What is the medical explanation for this?

What is the relationship between stress and anxiety and blood pressure?

Stress is a feeling of being tense and stressed emotionally and physically. This condition can occur due to certain events or thoughts that make you frustrated, angry, or nervous.

Stress can also continue even though the events that cause stress are gone. This condition is then called anxiety or anxiety.

Reporting from MedlinePlus, stress is the body's reaction to a certain threat, challenge, demand, or request. This reaction can be positive, such as helping you avoid a dangerous threat or pushing you to reach a certain challenging target.

However, stress and anxiety can also have a negative impact on your physical health, including a rise in blood pressure. Then, how can stress affect blood pressure?

The heart and blood vessels are two important elements in providing nutrients and oxygen to various organs of the body. However, the activity of these two elements is also connected to the body's response to stress.

When stress occurs, your body releases stress hormones, namely adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine, which cause an increase in heart rate and a stronger contraction of the heart muscle.

In addition, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart widen, increasing the amount of blood pumped. The increase in the amount of blood can also increase blood pressure in a person.

Reporting from the Mayo Clinic, the release of stress hormones, especially cortisol, can also increase sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream. It also plays a role in increasing blood pressure in a person.

However, the body's response to stress is only temporary. Your heart rate, blood vessels, and blood pressure will return to normal once these stress hormones have disappeared.

Can stress and anxiety cause long-term hypertension?

Even though it only happens temporarily, stress and anxiety can also be one of the causes of long-term hypertension. This happens when the stress and anxiety you feel is continuous and for a long time. This condition is also known as chronic stress.

In a journal published by the State Medical Society of Wisconsin, stress does not directly cause hypertension. However, this can happen if you experience repeated increases in blood pressure due to stress.

In addition, hypertension can also occur if you have more than one stress-causing factor. The factors that cause stress that can affect blood pressure include work, social environment, white coat hypertension, race, or emotional distress. In addition, stress due to lack of sleep can also cause hypertension.

On the other hand, stress and anxiety can also lead to bad habits, which will also affect blood pressure. Usually, when people are stressed, they often take it out by smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, or eating unhealthy foods.

These are the most common risk factors and causes of hypertension, especially in essential or primary hypertension types.

Additionally, some medications to treat anxiety and other mental health conditions, such as the SNRI antidepressant drugs, can also raise your blood pressure.

Possible damage to blood vessels

A sudden and prolonged rise in blood pressure due to stress can cause long-term health problems for the blood vessels and heart. This is because the stress hormones released by your body can damage blood vessels and force your heart to pump blood harder.

If it lasts for a long time, the high blood pressure that you suffer from can get worse and you may begin to feel various symptoms of hypertension, such as headaches, chest pain, and others. If you have experienced this, you may also need high blood medication to overcome it.

Blood vessels damaged by stress also make you more at risk of developing complications from hypertension, such as heart disease, heart attack, or stroke.

Therefore, you should avoid stress. If stress happens to you, you should immediately find healthy ways to relieve it so as not to cause hypertension, such as meditation, listening to music, or doing your hobbies.

You also need to adopt a healthy lifestyle to help prevent hypertension due to other factors, such as a hypertensive diet, regular exercise, not smoking, and reducing alcohol consumption.