A 37-year-old member asked:
what is the link between anxiety and hypertension?
1 doctor answer
Dr. Steven Reidbord answered
36 years experience Psychiatry
Chicken & egg: Anxiety can cause hypertension, ie, high blood pressure, and in some cases hypertension (due to other causes) can lead to anxiety too. Anxiety causes the "fight or flight response": stress hormones are released and the sympathetic nervous system is activated. These cause blood vessels to squeeze tighter & the heart beats harder, thus increasing the blood pressure within those vessels.
Answered on Mar 20, 2018
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See U PCP : For evaluation and advise.
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One reading only: Although this blood pressure reading is elevated- you don't diagnose hypertension off of one value. If you were particularly anxious or had been physi ... Read More
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