It’s official. There are studies and research proving that chronic physical or emotional stress can cause high blood pressure or hypertension. A few signs and symptoms to look for include: headache, ringing in the ears, high blood pressure, or no symptoms at all. Your blood pressure can spike temporarily during stressful situations, but if the stressful response of fight or flight becomes a chronic reaction from within the body, it may also cause long-term high blood pressure if paired with other factors, such as overeating, poor nutrition and poor sleep habits.

Fight or Flight

Fight or flight is when your body produces stress hormones in preparation for fighting your stress or running away from it. This stress response is useful for people when facing immediate threats, however, if the stress and response is not properly managed, it can cause internal damage. Although these stress hormones were originally meant to help give warning of imminent danger, they tend to temporarily increase your blood pressure by causing your heart to beat faster and your blood vessels to narrow.

It's Relative

There are also a number of mental health conditions related to stress, such as anxiety, depression, and isolation from friends and family, of which researchers have also linked to heart disease. However, there's no evidence that they're actually linked to high blood pressure. Interestingly enough, it may be that the hormones produced when you're emotionally stressed may damage your arteries, leading to heart disease. A contributing factor may be that being depressed or hopeless may cause self-destructive behavior, such as neglecting to take your medications to control high blood pressure or other heart conditions.

Time for a Change

Anti-anxiety medications can be prescribed, but that’s not the only change that needs to be made to avoid complications of stress-induced hypertension. The following lifestyle changes can help you greatly reduce your high blood pressure:

• exercise – at minimum, you should be exercising 30 to 60 minutes per day. This not only reduces your stress levels, but it helps get the blood moving and circulating.

• proper nutrition – include whole grains, flaxseed, soy, nuts, beans, fruit, vegetables, omega-3s and plenty of water in your daily diet

• supplementation – taking quality vitamins and herbal supplements, along with consuming a heart-healthy and wholesome diet, will help give your body the boost it needs to fight degenerative diseases