How Stress Affects your Blood Pressure

 

Welcome to Resistance's new Community Health and Wellness blog. The purpose of this blog is to help people who are struggling with hypertension. For our first blog post we will be talking about how stress effects a persons blood pressure. 

An article "Stress and high blood pressure: What's the connection?" by the Mayo Clinic staff states "The body releases a surge of hormones when under stress. These hormones cause the heart to beat faster and the blood vessels to narrow. When these blood vessels narrow, blood pressure increases. This shows how important it is to avoid as much stress as possible. When you avoid stress then those hormones are not released.   

The Mayo Clinic staff say "certain health conditions related to stress, such as:

  • Anxiety 
  • Depression
  • Being cut off from friends and family. 
These things are closely related to serious problems in the heart, including hypertension. Anxiety is a growing problem in the world today. This anxiety doesn't just affect the older generation, it also affects the younger generation. With this anxiety is shows that the current generation will have problems with their heart as they get older. Not only is anxiety a problem, depression is also a rising problem. It is important to control your depression so that it doesn't cause serious health problems. People think of anxiety and depression as only mental problems, this is not true, it can affect people physically too. 


The Mayo Clinic bring up activities that can reduce stress and control hypertension. These activities include, 
  • "Adjust your schedule
  • Breathe to relax
  • Exercise regularly 
  • Get enough sleep
  • Change how you see challenges"

Recognize where you have control." According to the American Heart Association, in their 2016 article, "Managing Stress to Control High Blood Pressure," they say to accept things that you can not control. Many people get caught up on things that they can't control. When they get so focused on these things their stress levels increase. There is no point in thinking about things in the past or things that can't be changed. 


"Think ahead about what may upset you. Some things you can avoid. For example, spend less time with people who bother you or avoid driving in rush-hour traffic" stated the American Heart Association. It is important to know what causes you stress and to avoid it at all cost. When you avoid this triggers there is a less likely chance that you will be stressed out and get hypertension. Many people get stressed by small things, it is important to avoid even those small things. Another great point that the American Heart Association brought up was, "Change how you respond to difficult situations, focusing on the positive, not the negative. Expressing gratitude to others can also boost your level of feeling good about life and reduce stressful thoughts." It is important to focus on the positive things in life instead of the negative things. When you do this you avoid being stressed about the negative things. Being grateful will always help you lessen your stress as well. 

It is important to reach out to your physician if you are experiencing extreme stress. This stress can lead to hypertension and problems with your heart. 

Resources




DISCLAIMER: This is for a class assignment; it is not a real blog. 


Comments

  1. The Importance of Nutrition and ExerciseApril 11, 2023 at 2:10 PM

    Hello,
    I was reading through your article and found it very interesting that stress can lead to your blood pressure increasing! I deal with stress and depression and have noticed how it affects my sleep, why exactly would that be? Also, while reading through how to control stress, how do you start to try and change how you see challenges? I find that to be quite difficult, especially if they are really difficult ones. I found your resources to be helpful and provide a good look into everything you talked about. Lastly, I found it interesting that when you focus more on the positives in life rather than the negatives it truly does help your mood and how you view the world.

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  2. Elizabeth OlsonApril 11, 2023 at 8:37 PM

    Hi there!
    I thought that this blog was super informative on stress and how it impacts our blood pressures. It aways blows my mind that stress can release hormones to do things like constrict our vessels, resulting in the increase in blood pressure. It only makes sense with how you explained things that constant stress and anxiety could in fact lead to other, more serious issues, like heart problems. I personally am a big-time stressor at times and can feel that increase in heart rate. In times like those it is important to remember how we can "calm" ourselves. I love the list of activities you mentioned in order to help with anxiety. For me, taking the time to stop whatever it is I am doing, taking the time to deep breath, or go out for a walk, really does help my stress/anxiety go away!

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