Your reaction to stress may affect your blood pressure

Your body produces a surge of hormones when you're in a stressful situation. These hormones temporarily increase your blood pressure by causing your heart to beat faster and your blood vessels to narrow.

There's no proof that stress by itself causes long-term high blood pressure. But reacting to stress in unhealthy ways can increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Certain behaviors are linked to higher blood pressure, such as:

• Smoking
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Eating unhealthy foods

Also, heart disease may be linked to certain health conditions related to stress, such as:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Isolation from friends and family

But there's no evidence these conditions are directly linked to high blood pressure. Instead, the hormones your body makes when you're emotionally stressed may damage your arteries, leading to heart disease. Also, some symptoms, like those caused by depression, may cause you to forget to take medications to control high blood pressure or other heart conditions.

Increases in blood pressure related to stress can be dramatic. But when your stress goes away, your blood pressure returns to normal. However, even frequent, temporary spikes in blood pressure can damage your blood vessels, heart and kidneys in a way similar to long-term high blood pressure.