Lowering Systolic Blood Pressure More May Cut Health Risks
One major study found that lowering systolic blood pressure to well below the commonly recommended level also greatly lowered the number of cardiovascular events and deaths among people at least 50 years old with high blood pressure.
When study participants achieved a systolic blood pressure target of 120 mmHg compared to the higher target of 140 mmHg recommended for most people, and 150 for people over 60 issues such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure were reduced by almost one-third, and the risk of death by almost one-fourth.
âThatâs important information, because more lives may be saved and more deaths may be prevented if we maintain lower blood pressure in certain patients,â says Lynne Braun, NP, PhD, a nurse practitioner at the Rush Heart Center for Women.
Braun cautions, however, that your personal blood pressure target depends on a variety of things, including your current blood pressure, lifestyle, risk factors, other medications you are taking and your age. âEvery person has to be evaluated as an individual,â she says. âRealistically, we canât get everybody down to 120, and trying to do so may create unintended problems.â
It can be dangerous, for instance, to keep an older person on medications that have unsafe side effects, such as diuretics , which can cause dehydration and dizziness in older adults.
And there can be other issues involved with taking multiple medications, such as cost and compliance.
Bp And Heart Rate Measurements
Blood pressure and heart rate were measured in the supine position, by a nurse who was unaware of the study, with a device that was checked every day for accuracy against a mercury sphygmomanometer.
Measurements were taken twice on the left arm, 2 min apart, and the average of the two measurements was recorded.
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Effect Of Pure Anxiety And Pure Depression On Mean Blood Pressure
In analyses using symptoms of anxiety and depression as continuous scores separately at year 11, we found that both anxiety and depression predicted lower blood pressure at year 22. In analyses where anxiety and depression were further adjusted for each other, the remaining effects of anxiety and of depression on blood pressure were attenuated or became non-significant . Further adjustment for other health factors, antihypertensive medication and heart rate slightly attenuated the associations, similarly as shown in Table . Supplementary analyses using anxiety/depression cut-offs confirmed the direction and increased the strength of the associations described above. However, several of the findings became non-significant .
Table 3 Association of anxiety and depression1 at 11-year follow-up with change in blood pressure from 11-year to 22-year follow-up
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What Happens To Your Heart Rate During A Panic Attack
In many cases, a panic attack triggers a fast heart rate, also known as tachycardia. The heart rate may speed up to 200 beats per minute or even faster.
A fast heart rate can make you feel lightheaded and short of breath. Or you might feel fluttering or pounding in the chest. Usually, tachycardia that happens in response to emotional stress and only lasts a few minutes is not harmful. But if it happens regularly, or you have possible symptoms of a heart attack, seek medical care.
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How Does Anxiety Affect Blood Pressure
As weve covered, high levels of stress and anxiety can increase blood pressure in the short term. However, its important to note that this is only in certain people and in some circumstances.
If you have a healthy body weight, normal blood pressure, and eat a healthy diet, stress and anxiety cant raise your long-term blood pressure. This is why anxiety is also known as the worried well syndrome.
With constant worries, however, there are several cardiovascular effects that you can experience. It can relevant the blood pressure in the short term and also affect the muscles of the heart among other body systems.
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What Is Optimal Blood Pressure
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Can Anxiety Cause Dizziness
Anxiety disorders may be associated with dizziness.
People with anxiety disorders, particularly those with panic disorder, often complain of feeling dizzy or lightheaded.
However, the link between dizziness and anxiety isn’t completely clear.
It’s thought, though, that stress-related hormones or compounds released during the fight-or-flight response might affect the vestibular system within the inner ear, which coordinates balance and movement. This, in turn, may be the source of feelings of dizziness or lightheadedness in some individuals with anxiety disorders.
Tips For Making Healthy Lifestyle Changes
If you suffer with high blood pressure, its easy to feel intimidated by the changes you need to make in order to improve your health. While some people may only need to work on one or two areas to reduce their blood pressuregetting more exercise or quitting smoking, for examplemost of us find that we need to improve our habits in at least 3 or 4 areas. But even if you smoke, drink heavily, are overweight, stressed out, sedentary, and eat nothing but junk and processed food, that doesnt mean you have to tackle everything all at once. Making lots of different lifestyle changes at the same time can be overwhelming. And when we feel overwhelmed, its easy to opt for doing nothing rather than doing something.
Start gradually and make one or two changes to begin with. Once those changes have become habit, you can tackle one or two more, and so on. For example, you may decide to start by giving up smokingand adopting some relaxation techniques to help with the stress of quittingthen move on to losing weight or improving your diet.
Lose the all or nothing thinking. Doing something, no matter how small, is always better than doing nothing. If youre eating healthy food during the week, for example, then resorting to takeouts at the weekends, your blood pressure and overall health will still be in better shape than if you were eating takeout every day.
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Living With Panic Attack Health Fears
Panic attacks involve so many physical symptoms that health fears are incredibly common. It can even create health anxiety. That’s why it’s so important to get your panic attacks under control.
Your blood pressure does increase when you have anxiety. Two different issues lead to the development of high blood pressure during an attack:
- Adrenaline, which causes your heart to speed blood around your body.
- Hyperventilation, which causes your blood vessels to constrict.
Both of these lead to tremendous pressure, and in some cases the appearance of severe hypertension. Those that go through panic attacks, they tend to experience fear over whether or not these attacks indicate that they are putting strain on their heart that could be deadly.
Can Hypertension Cause Anxiety
Many patients with hypertension often have diagnoses for anxiety or depression as well.
A 2018 study states that between 7.5% and 53% of hypertensive patients also have depression, and between 19% and 51% have anxiety and other panic disorders.
This doesnt mean that hypertension causes chronic anxiety or depression, though.
However, natural concerns about health issues can cause heightened stress.
This might trigger anxiety in those predisposed.
Having a good support network and healthy coping mechanisms for stress can help reduce your anxiety levels and prevent the added challenge of anxiety disorders.
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I Suffer From Anxiety And My Bp Is Elevated What Can I Do To Lower It
One of the most important things you can do to manage your BP is exercise. Exercise lowers your blood pressure by releasing endorphins into your system. Exercise also helps you release tension that builds up in your muscles. And if youre not currently exercising, now is the time to start!Anxiety also increases your heart rate and constricts your blood vessels. This loosens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure temporarily. But this effect doesnt last long enough to counteract the effects raised BP over time. Thats why its important for people suffering from anxiety and high BP levels to find ways to break the cycle of worry and panic attacks.Exercise, meditation, or getting enough sleep are all great ways to reduce stress levels. And by lowering stress levels, youll be able to better control your anxiety and lower your BP as well
Can Anxiety Raise Your Bp All You Need To Know
Can Anxiety Raise your BP or cause hypertension? When we experience stress, our bodies respond by pumping out more adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals help us cope with threatening situations and make us more alert. However, when stress levels are high for prolonged periods, it can have negative health consequences, such as weight gain and heart disease
In some people, persistent stress leads to high levels of anxiety, also known as stress-related disorders.
A 2017 review found that psychosocial stress can have a negative impact on your blood pressure. However, the review did not find any evidence that anxiety per se raises your blood pressure. So, while high anxiety may make it more difficult to maintain healthy blood pressure, it doesnt have any direct link to the number on the scale. Instead, its a combination of other factors that lead to high blood pressure.
Contents
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The Effect Of Anxiety On The Heart
When someone is anxious, their body reacts in ways that can put an extra strain on their heart. The physical symptoms of anxiety can be especially damaging among individuals with existing cardiac disease.
Anxiety may have an association with the following heart disorders and cardiac risk factors:
- Rapid heart rate In serious cases, can interfere with normal heart function and increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
- Increased blood pressure If chronic, can lead to coronary disease, weakening of the heart muscle, and heart failure.
- May result in higher incidence of death after an acute heart attack.
Can Anxiety Raise Blood Pressure
Yes, intense stress and anxiety can cause sharp spikes in blood pressureat least temporarily. Some think anxiety could increase the risk of chronic high blood pressure , but we need more evidence to say that for sure .
Whether anxiety causes chronic high blood pressure or not, those temporary spikes may still be harmful if they happen often. We all experience anxiety from time to time, and those temporary blood pressure spikes are not dangerous. But living with chronic anxiety that causes your blood pressure to shoot up very frequently couldover timeput you at increased risk of cardiovascular disease .
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Making Changes If You Have Anxiety Or Depression
If your high blood pressure is co-occurring with a mental health problem such as depression or anxiety, it can be even tougher to find the energy and motivation to make the necessary lifestyle changes. Just thinking about exercising or preparing a healthy meal, for example, can seem overwhelming. But by focusing all your efforts on one tiny change at a time, youll find that youre capable of more than you realized.
Take the first step. It could be as simple as going for a walk or downloading a meditation app or buying some nicotine patches. It can take time for lifestyle changes to register as a reduction in blood pressurebut sometimes they can improve your mood much sooner. Taking that first step is always the hardest.
Focus on small steps. Its easy to get overwhelmed by daily life when youre battling depression, anxiety, or another mood disorder. By taking small but positive steps each day, though, youll find that your energy and outlook will gradually start to improve. Once you feel happier and more positive, youll find it easier to forge ahead with lifestyle changes and see the results in both your blood pressure readings and your overall outlook and wellbeing.
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Hypertension And Your Mental Health
You may not think of mental health disorders when you think about high blood pressure, but a connection exists. If you have hypertension, youre more likely to experience mood issues, such as anxiety and depression than those with normal blood pressure.
Hypertension is a manageable condition. There are ways to control your blood pressure with lifestyle changes and/or medication. Adhering to an effective hypertension treatment plan can get your blood pressure under control and improve your mental health. Heres what our physicians at Westmed Family Healthcare want you to know about hypertension and your mental health.
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How To Reduce The Impact Of Anxiety On Bp
There are a few ways to reduce the effect of anxiety on blood pressure. One is to practice stress relief by engaging in activities that you enjoy, like stretching or yoga. You can also change the conversation in your head so that its more positive, which will help relieve some of your stress.
Another way is to take care of yourself by eating nutritious foods and getting enough sleep. Its not always easy to find ways to feel more relaxed, but these tips can help. For some, high levels of stress and anxiety cause blood pressure to rise. If this is the case for you, you might consider how you respond to stress.
Other ways to deal with anxiety and stress include:
Can Panic Attacks Kill You
Panic attacks, in a general sense, cannot kill you. There is nearly no scenario in which a panic attack can kill you, because panic attacks are not caused by physical problems, nor do they create any lasting physical damage.
For those in good health especially those in good heart health that means that in nearly every scenario imaginable you will survive each and every panic attack you may experience. It is conceivable that there is some incredibly rare issue that causes a complication, but as of yet, there is no known way that someone healthy will die from a panic attack unless that panic attack causes them to engage in some dangerous behavior.
However, panic attacks do increase blood pressure. Those that do not have good heart health are putting strain on their heart when they have high blood pressure spikes. But the reality is that even then it’s extremely unlikely that panic attacks will lead to any health problems:
- Most heart disease can be found with a simple doctor’s appointment. If the heart disease is not present, or you are young with no history of heart disease, you have nothing to worry about.
- If you do have heart disease, you should try to control your panic attacks as best you can, but note that even with heart disease a problem from panic attacks is very rare. When a high spike in blood pressure causes heart problems, it is usually not related to something like a racing heartbeat from anxiety.
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What Are We Seeing In This Image
This is a chart that reveals autonomic testing results in a patient we saw in our office.
When hooked up and being monitored we can see that:
- When the person had a stressful memory, just one stressful memory, the sympathetic system went way up . This person with one stressful memory became super sympathetic dominant and then eventually when we got the person to laugh the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system became balanced again.
A heart rate variability test can give us a picture to show us how the person is doing as a relates to thoughts, memory, relationships. We can also test based on neck motions.
The motion of the neck and heart rate variability
In the above image, we can see that the second most stressful event for this person, besides the stressful memory, was a certain neck motion. In certain people, when they move their neck to a certain position, they can feel their overall body becoming more stressful and this is a real physiologic event that happens to them and the way that we document is with HRV testing.
The testing put patients in different stressor situations. This could include the stress of having to perform mathematical equations and the response to loud noise.