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An example of a blood pressure monitor with a question mark needle

Example: Natalie Peoples/Axios

Do you have a difficult job, a difficult marriage, rebellious children and a declining bank account? Recent research suggests that they may not be raising your blood pressure in a medically meaningful way.

The big picture: Rather than everyday stressors, the real culprits are often genetics and poor habits Connected. For stress, such as overeating, smoking and hitting the bottle.

  • Commonly prescribed medications—such as stress reduction, biofeedback, and relaxation techniques—are ineffective at lowering blood pressure in ways that provide health benefits.

Why is it important? About half of American adults have hypertension (high blood pressure), and only 24% have it under control, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  • According to the World Health Organization, high blood pressure is responsible for 12.8% of all deaths worldwide.

driving news; While studies have shown an increase in blood pressure in the population during the highly stressful COVID-19 pandemic, the increases have been modest, doctors say, and are likely related to people exercising less, eating poorly, drinking too much and seeing their doctors more often.

  • “Our expectations were much worse,” said Hiroshi Gotanda, an internist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles who led the high blood pressure study during the outbreak.
  • The study found that patients had their blood pressure readings less often during the first eight months of the outbreak, and their readings were slightly higher than before the outbreak.
  • But the differences “were smaller than expected, possibly because of home blood pressure monitoring and telemedicine,” Gotanda said.

Many patients actually They saw their blood pressure readings to improve During the epidemic It’s probably because they don’t eat too much salty restaurant food, says Samuel Mann, MD, a blood pressure specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

  • Who reviewed dozens of studies on the topic and found no meaningful link, says it is a “medical myth” that chronic stress causes high blood pressure – especially work stress.
  • “Yes, stress and emotional distress can temporarily raise anyone’s blood pressure,” Mann writes in a new book, “Hidden Within Us: A Radical New Understanding of the Mind-Body Connection.”
  • “However, decades of mind-body research has failed to prove causation continuous Blood pressure or stress reduction and relaxation techniques can result continuous Lowering blood pressure.”

Yes, but: The medical community still hasn’t completely ruled out the link between stress and high blood pressure.

  • “Increased psychosocial stress” during the pandemic may hinder chronic hypertension management, says Gotanda study.
  • A separate study of blood pressure levels during the pandemic, led by Luke Laffin of the Cleveland Clinic, reached a similar conclusion — and cited “emotional stress” as a possible cause.
  • The American Heart Association says the link between stress and high blood pressure is “still being studied.”

A new theory: Chronic stress from everyday stress, repressed emotions — from childhood trauma and other trauma — can sometimes occur, Mann writes in his new book.

  • “I am introducing the concept of repressed emotions and their impact on our health, a concept that does not yet exist in medicine,” said Axios.
  • His conclusions stemmed from decades of interviews with hypertensive patients who described major traumas in their lives (from losing a child to surviving the Holocaust).
  • Repressed emotions, consciously or unconsciously, can cause high blood pressure, migraines, chronic fatigue syndrome and other conditions, Mann argued.

The main point is: A healthy diet combined with regular exercise and good sleep habits can control or prevent high blood pressure, doctors say.

  • Controlling blood pressure and stress is “really 70% lifestyle and 30% medication,” says Laffin.

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