By Reijo Metso
Despite that high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a common problem, very little is known about its causes. In 95% of the cases, the cause is unknown. But a lot of studies have shown that long term stress can cause or at least contribute to hypertension. Other prime suspects are unhealthy diets and lack of exercise. In many cases, hypertension is probably caused by a combination of factors.
Emotions such as anger and fear trigger the body’s fight or flight response. The adrenal glands flood the body with stress hormones. The brain shunts blood away from the gut and towards the muscles, in preparation for physical exertion. Heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increase. The fight or flight response has been very important for the survival of mankind, a caveman had to quickly make up his mind either to stay and fight or try to escape a threat. Today, very few real life threatening dangers exist but the old fight or flight response still gets triggered in a lot of situations.
The fight or flight response by itself is not a major health concern. The real problem is that today it is much more difficult to release the emotions. You can not hit or run away from a telephone call or traffic jam. You never get the chance to complete the fight or flight cycle. The emotions stay inside you rather than getting released when fighting or escaping. If you do not release these built-up emotions your health will suffer. Hypertension is just one of the health issues caused by this.
By learning how to respond to stressful situations, you can reduce stress and for a lot of people this means lower blood pressure. The best way of dealing with pent-up emotions varies from person to person. But the two extreme solutions, suppressing them completely or letting the emotions control you must be avoided. If you let a powerful emotion like anger out without control, your blood pressure will increase dramatically. And you may do things you will regret later. The other extreme, trying to suppress your emotions is no long term solution and it is most likely one of the main causes of stress. If you never release your pent-up emotions, your blood pressure is likely to keep on increasing.
In most cases, some kind of physical activity is a good way of letting off steam. But it is also important to be able to manage stressful situations, being able to respond rather than reacting is the key. The first step in this process is to understand that life is not easy, bad things happen to everyone. Try to see it as a challenge rather than a threat. Also avoid jumping to conclusions, especially if they are based on anger of fear. Relaxation and stress reducing exercises are important ways of controlling stress. And remember, when you think you are too busy to relax, that’s exactly when you really need to relax.
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