It’s well known that stress contributes to various health risks, but can it also lead to high blood pressure? That’s the question a Quora user asked, ‘I was in the hospital with a blood pressure of 200/90. They said it was a panic attack or stress. I went back to the doctor two months later, and it was still high. Can stress cause high blood pressure?’ Let’s get an answer from an expert.
Dr Manisha Arora, director of internal medicine at CK Birla Hospital, Delhi, concurred that stress can definitely cause a temporary rise in blood pressure. “When you are under stress or experiencing a panic attack, your body releases the ‘fight-or-flight’ hormone — cortisol. This hormone makes the heart beat faster and causes the blood vessels to narrow, which results in a spike in blood pressure. Once the stress settles, blood pressure usually returns to normal. That’s why, in the hospital, doctors may give anti-anxiety or relaxation medicines first to help bring the pressure down. If the blood pressure remains very high despite this, a small dose of antihypertensive medicine may also be given to avoid any immediate risks,” said Dr Arora.
What to note?
It’s important to understand that your heart and blood vessels don’t know whether the high blood pressure is caused by stress or by underlying hypertension; the effects can still be harmful. “That’s why doctors are careful: they don’t want to over-treat and cause low blood pressure, but they also don’t want to leave it untreated if it stays persistently high,” said Dr Arora.
In cases like this one, where the blood pressure was extremely high initially and still remained elevated even two months later, doctors usually recommend “closer monitoring”. “This may involve checking blood pressure multiple times a day and sometimes doing a 24-hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM). ABPM helps reveal whether the high readings are only happening during stressful moments or whether blood pressure remains high throughout the day and night,” said Dr Arora.
Don’t ignore stress (Photo: Freepik)
If blood pressure remains persistently high despite controlling stress, then it suggests hypertension, said Dr Arora. “To confirm this, doctors may also look for signs of long-term effects of high blood pressure, for example, an echocardiogram may show thickening of the heart muscle, a fundus (eye) examination may reveal hypertensive changes in the retina, and an ultrasound may detect effects on the kidneys. These findings suggest that the problem has been ongoing and requires regular treatment,” said Dr Arora.
Stress alone can cause high blood pressure, but when stress becomes chronic, combined with poor lifestyle habits such as smoking, alcohol use, lack of exercise, unhealthy diet, and poor sleep, it significantly increases the risk of developing sustained hypertension. In such cases, regular medication along with lifestyle changes is often needed to bring blood pressure under control.
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to. Always consult your health practitioner before starting any routine.