Does anxiety elevate your blood pressure?

[WillB]

I’m always anxious before my doctor appointment.My blood pressure goes up a good 30 points. Other stressful issues can also elevate my blood pressure. Just curious if others have this problem.

 

[Jonathan123]

Welcome. YES! Is the short answer to that. It's called 'white coat syndrome' and doctors allow for that in their diagnosis. Any stress, whether mental or physical will elevate BP. This is perfectly normal because we are being prepared for what we see as possible danger. Apprehension is a classic anxiety symptom. As the old man said, 'I have had many troubles in my time, few of which ever happened'!

 

[Phillies Phan]

Welcome. YES! Is the short answer to that. It's called 'white coat syndrome' and doctors allow for that in their diagnosis. Any stress, whether mental or physical will elevate BP. This is perfectly normal because we are being prepared for what we see as possible danger. Apprehension is a classic anxiety symptom. As the old man said, 'I have had many troubles in my time, few of which ever happened'!

Or Will Rogers comment as he was in his old age…”90% of the things I’ve worried about in my life never came to pass, and the 10% that did, weren’t as bad as I feared they would be”.

 

[E.B]

100 percent it does

 

[Sam1987]

Yep, went to the GI doctor for a follow visit and was nervous in the waiting area to begin with, then when they took my BP it was 153/89. I take it all the time at home and it’s always around 130/80.

 

[Camden]

Yes absolutely and it’s totally normal. Even without underlying cardiac conditions, a simple stressful situation will raise your blood pressure. Blood pressure fluctuates frequently throughout the day in healthy people.

Ever since I began my new meds and started doing some light exercise recently, my blood pressure and resting heart rate have dropped. It was alarmingly high at one point last summer, however I think my more effective medicine has mostly stabilized it.

 

[MARCC]

For sure.

 

[imsotired]

yes absolutely. i used to feel the same way. i have gotten way better now thou. try and write the things down that you want to say which will alleviate some stress so you dont have to remember everything. when we are stress we can can develop cancer and heart disease, high cortisol levels can cause inner thinning of the blood vessels, hypertension etc. i would recommend speaking to your doctor about this to see if they can give you medication or lifestyle changes. also what could be helpful is to take watter with you. for me drinking helps slow down my breathing/ nervous system.

hope this helps

 

[Linnoix]

Yes! My doctor recently wanted to track my blood pressure at home for a few weeks because I was having higher readings than she liked. Nothing crazy but enough that she would put me on medicine. Turns out, it’s just white coat syndrome. All my blood pressures were 120/80 or below at home. I recently had a GI follow up and they took my blood pressure and it was 145/90 which I just explained to them it happens at the doctors but I was also wrangling my 11 month old so I’m sure that didn’t help. My husband has high BP found out by me doing the at home checks. He checked his out of curiosity and it was pretty high. Off to the doctor he went and now he’s on meds. Apparently my mother in law has high blood pressure too and his grandfather so seems to be genetic!