Blood Pressure: The Heart-Head Connection

Did you know that in addition to lifestyle and hereditary factors, your level of stress and emotional state can also have an effect on your blood pressure? ¹

Although there’s no proof that stress and emotions alone can cause high blood pressure, growing evidence suggests that they may contribute to hypertension. This is because stress can increase the body’s production of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol which in turn raises your blood pressure. And when we are stressed, we may self-medicate our mood with alcohol, nicotine, junk food, or recreational drugs, all of which can also elevate our blood pressure.

Emotional stress like anger, grief, and frustration can cause a surge in hormones. These hormones temporarily increase your blood pressure (BP) making your heart beat faster and narrowing your blood vessels. Long-term or chronic stress can result in your blood pressure failing to return to resting levels. In addition, social stressors such as financial concerns, job insecurity, and relationship worries have been found to be associated with higher levels of hormones and increased BP over time.

And your mental health can also have a negative effect on your blood pressure. Isolating yourself from friends and family—a common occurrence with depression and anxiety—can send your blood pressure up and damage your cardiovascular health. It’s also true that high blood pressure and common mental health problems often go together resulting in unhealthy lifestyle factors like over-eating, lack of exercise, and poor sleep patterns. So, it makes sense that changing your lifestyle to address high blood pressure can also help to improve your mental health—and vice versa.

The good news is that once you recognize the signs of stress it’s easy to rectify. In many cases, simple lifestyle changes can have a huge impact on your numbers and help protect both your heart and mental health.

Activities that can reduce your stress and lower your blood pressure

Managing your stress can help improve your health and lead to healthy behavior changes that may help reduce your blood pressure.

There are many ways to manage stress.

Simplify your life. If you are always on the go and feeling pressured for time, take a few minutes to review your schedule and to-do lists – is everything absolutely necessary, can anything be cut or re-scheduled?

Breathe. Taking deep, slow breaths to help you relax. Enjoy the moment and appreciate your surroundings.

Exercise. Physical activity is a great stressbuster and will improve your health in many other areas. Just make sure to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program if you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Yoga and meditation. These techniques strengthen your body and help you relax, and they may also lower your systolic blood pressure by 5 mm Hg or more.

Get plenty of quality sleep. Sleep is a great natural restorer that helps to regulate hormones needed to regulate stress and metabolism. Long-term lack of sleep can cause an imbalance in these hormones leading to high blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

¹https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC5407387/

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-living/ blood-pressure-and-your-brain

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ high-blood-pressure/ in-depth/stress-and-high-blood-pressure/ art-20044190 : Your reaction to stress may, your blood vessels to narrow.