Both anxiety and high blood pressure affect millions of people across the world. They’re two separate medical conditions that occur independently of each other. At first glance, they may seem unrelated. However, research suggests they are more connected than many may have thought.
In this article, we will explore the connection between anxiety and high blood pressure. We will also dive into how and why anxiety might lead to high blood pressure and different treatment strategies for both conditions.
Can Anxiety Cause High Blood Pressure?
Yes, anxiety and high blood pressure can directly impact each other. Research has found that anxiety can cause short-term spikes in blood pressure and that people with hypertension reported having higher levels of anxiety than people without hypertension. Additionally, receiving a high blood pressure diagnosis may lead to feelings of anxiety, worry, and unease.
When we suddenly experience anxiety, our body releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream. Adrenaline makes our hearts beat faster, temporarily raises our blood pressure and makes us feel more awake and energized. Cortisol slows down some of our body’s functions that may get in the way if we were in a threatening situation, like our digestive and reproductive systems, and causes blood vessels to narrow.
This automatic reaction to anxiety, panic attacks or stress is what is known as a fight-or-flight response. Essentially, it’s a survival mechanism that all humans (and mammals) have that helps us prepare for potentially dangerous situations and care for our well-being. After your body calms back down, these hormones settle back down to normal levels.
Understanding Anxiety’s Effect on the Body
Anxiety is an excessive feeling of dread, feel, and worry. It’s our body and mind’s natural response to stress or perceived danger. These overwhelming emotions are often accompanied by physical symptoms like sweating, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Even though everyone feels dread, fear and worry now and then, people with anxiety disorders experience them at a far more intense level and more frequently. For instance, most people may worry about being late for a meeting. However, someone with GAD may not be able to sleep or eat, or may break out into a sweat because of how stressed they feel about it.
Common Symptoms of Anxiety
Typically, anxiety manifests in the body as a wide range of emotional and physical symptoms. These symptoms can vary from mild to severe depending on your anxiety levels.
Some common symptoms of anxiety include:
- Sweating and hot flushes
- Restlessness
- Muscle tension
- Rapid heart rate (tachycardia)
- Nausea and dizziness
- Irritability
- Faster breathing
- Excessive worry and fear
- Trouble sleeping
People who have chronic anxiety can experience their symptoms frequently and in a way that feels overwhelming. Sometimes, anxiety can lead to symptoms that are similar to those of a heart attack or cardiovascular disease (heart disease). These symptoms include chest pain, shortness of breath and palpitations.
What is High Blood Pressure?
The heart is responsible for pumping blood into the arteries. A certain amount of pressure is needed for blood to travel throughout your body via the arteries. That force is what is known as blood pressure.
Blood pressure varies depending on your activities and heart rate. For instance, your heart rate and blood pressure tend to go up when you’re working out. When you’re sleeping, on the other hand, your heart rate is typically slower, and your blood pressure is also usually lower.
When the pressure to pump blood through the arteries is consistently too high, it's called high blood pressure or hypertension. Hypertension is a blood pressure reading that is always at or above 130/80 mmHg, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). In the United States, almost half of all adults have hypertension.
What Causes High Blood Pressure?
High blood pressure won’t just happen overnight. It’s a condition that develops over time. Many different factors can influence whether or not a person will develop hypertension.
Some things that increase the risk of developing hypertension include:
- Not getting enough physical activity
- Smoking
- Older age
- Unbalanced, high-salt diets
- Overuse of alcohol
- Genetics
- Chronic stress
Some health conditions like diabetes, kidney disease and sleep apnea can lead to an increased risk factor of high blood pressure. In some cases, like during pregnancy, people may experience short-term hypertension.
This can also happen while you take certain medications like certain birth control pills, steroids, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin or ibuprofen. In those cases, your blood pressure will typically go back to normal once you stop taking the medication.
Does Long-Term Anxiety Lead to Persistent High Blood Pressure?
Even though anxiety doesn’t inherently affect your blood pressure long-term — if you are experiencing panic attacks or moderate to severe bouts of anxiety every day, it can cause daily spikes in your blood pressure. These daily rises, though temporary, may cause damage to your blood vessels and heart health, as long-term hypertension might. If left untreated, long-term anxiety may also increase your risk of hypertension.
Unfortunately, our bodies and minds can’t tell the difference between when our body is under stress due to a life-threatening situation or due to a passing moment of fear or anxiety. So, when it senses anxiety or stress, it releases that wave of hormones through our bodies to help us prepare for the worst-case scenario.
This makes it so that if you are someone with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), your body may be releasing the stress hormones that cause temporary moments of high blood pressure more often.
According to the American Heart Association (ADA), treating anxiety and depression can significantly lower the number of times people with heart disease need to go to the hospital or emergency room. That said, it’s important to remember that even though anxiety and high blood pressure may be connected, they can also happen individually.
Treatment for Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are highly treatable. Despite that, however, only 43.2% of adults who have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in the United States are receiving treatment. This may be due to the social stigma around mental illness, the cost of care, and a lack of information (and the spread of misinformation) when it comes to mental health.
The two most common treatment options for anxiety are:
- Psychotherapy: Talk therapy uses different therapy approaches, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you learn to identify and change your anxious thoughts, actions, and emotions.
- Medication: Certain antidepressants and anxiety medications can help reduce symptoms of anxiety when used as prescribed and under medical supervision. This includes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), and beta blockers, to name a few.
Psychotherapy and medication can be used together and have both been proven to be highly effective. Medication alone might not be enough to get your anxiety under control, but talk therapy can be used separately and still be effective. Additionally, certain anxiety medications, like beta-blockers, may also help lower blood pressure. Beta-blockers control the heart rate and are sometimes used to help with performance anxiety.
If you are struggling with anxiety or your mental health, a licensed social worker, therapist, or primary care provider can help you get started on a treatment plan to start managing your anxiety and its symptoms.
Treatment for Hypertension
Medication is very commonly prescribed to people with hypertension. That being said, lifestyle changes (like a healthy diet and exercise) are also an important part of managing high blood pressure, in addition to any other treatment they may be receiving.
If you're dealing or living with hypertension, it's always best to talk with your healthcare provider to determine a treatment that's best for you. A healthcare professional can also help you develop a blood pressure monitoring routine (at home or a doctor’s office), and prescribe blood pressure medication, when necessary.
How Sesame Can Help
Navigating through anxiety and high blood pressure can be overwhelming. That's why Sesame is here to offer you a helping hand on your path toward better health. Schedule a same-day telehealth appointment to get high blood pressure medication and treatment online. Sesame connects you with thousands of caring and qualified medical providers who can offer expert advice, accurate diagnoses, and tailored treatment plans, all from the comfort of your home.
At Sesame, easy access to mental health care is just as important as easy access to care for blood pressure and other conditions. That's why we also provide hassle-free, affordable anxiety treatment online from quality healthcare providers. Our goal is to simplify your journey and provide you with the care and attention you deserve, every step of the way.
