Stress and High Blood Pressure
If you are anxious, angry, have been hurrying, have a full bladder or if you are cold then your BP will rise for a few minutes or even a few hours – but none of these things seem to be causes of permanently raised high blood pressure. High blood pressure seems to be just as common in peaceable, even tempered people without worries as it is in excitable people with short fuses, however, feeling pushed at work or at home may be an important cause in some people, if not for everyone.
The word hypertension is used in medical jargon with exactly the same meaning as high blood pressure. This does not mean that feeling tense necessarily raises blood pressure, nor does it mean that most people with high blood pressure feel tense. Blood pressure falls considerably during normal sleep, both in people with normal blood pressure and in those whose blood pressure is high. Training in relaxation certainly lowers blood pressure for a while, and may have a useful long term effect on high blood pressure in people who learn how to switch off often during the day, but there is no evidence that treatment by relaxation along is an effective or safe alternative to drug treatment for people with severe high blood pressure.
Stress and High Blood Pressure
