Do stress and anxiety cause high blood pressure?

• Lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of high blood pressure and other heart problems.

September 2023 – You’re up against a deadline at work, in the middle of an argument with your partner, or your dog has escaped from the garden and you’re afraid a car will hit it as you desperately try to catch it. In all these examples, you may start to feel the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety: your pulse races and your mood worsens as your body starts to feel worn down. Common wisdom suggests that these symptoms also make your blood pressure soar.

But what is the real relationship between stress, anxiety and blood pressure? Should you worry about how short-term stress affects your body, or is only long-term stress a problem?

“Anxiety and stress in and of themselves don’t necessarily raise blood pressure in the long term,” says preventive cardiologist Luke Laffin, MD, “but they often have an impact on lifestyle factors, which can absolutely contribute to elevations in blood pressure.”

How do stress and anxiety affect blood pressure?

Dr. Laffin confirms that there is indeed a relationship between these physical reactions and the risk of other heart-related health problems, but it may not be what you think.

“While stress and anxiety can definitely cause elevated blood pressure, they don’t necessarily cause sustained elevations in blood pressure,” says the specialist.

To understand this, it’s important to know the two categories of stress we experience: 

• Acute stress and blood pressure: Acute stress is temporary stress caused by a specific event. “Acute stress can increase your heart rate and rev up your sympathetic nervous system, which, in turn, raises your blood pressure,” explains Dr. Laffin.

• Chronic stress and blood pressure: Researchers don’t fully understand the ways in which chronic stress affects blood pressure, notes Dr. Laffin. But what they do know is that stress can affect lifestyle habits, which can lead to higher blood pressure and increase the risk of stroke or other heart problems.

How can you reduce stress, anxiety and blood pressure?

While both types of stress can lead to raised blood pressure, they have different long-term effects.

We all have to deal with a certain amount of stress and anxiety, and how we do so affects our health, as it depends on how each person perceives the situation.

“Two people can be in exactly the same situation, but it may be much more stressful for one than for the other. Some people simply cope better with stress and have healthier coping strategies or support systems,” says Dr. Laffin.

Some of the ways you can reduce your stress levels and manage your anxiety, which in turn can lower your blood pressure, are:

• Exercising regularly.
• Getting enough good-quality sleep (between 6 and 8 hours).
• Eating a heart-healthy diet:  foods high in salt and fat can raise blood pressure even before stress and anxiety are added to the mix. To keep blood pressure down, try cutting back on those foods while adding antioxidant-rich, heart-healthy foods.
• Trying meditation.

Remember: there is no medicine that guarantees a healthy heart, so it’s up to each person to adopt a lifestyle that helps keep their heart in top condition.

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About Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical centre that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based on the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States.  

U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Among Cleveland Clinic’s 72,500 employees worldwide are more than 5,050 salaried physicians and researchers, and 17,800 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties.  Cleveland Clinic is a 6,500-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 21 hospitals, more than 220 outpatient facilities, and locations in northeast Ohio; southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England.

In 2021, there were 10.2 million outpatient visits, 304,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 259,000 surgeries across Cleveland Clinic’s health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 185 countries.  

Visit us at clevelandclinic.org. Follow us at twitter.com/ClevelandClinic. News and resources available at newsroom.clevelandclinic.org.

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