Anxiety May Cause to Increase Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar and Cholesterol.
Anxiety may cause to raise
blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol?
Anxiety doesn't cause long-term high blood pressure (hypertension). But episodes of anxiety can cause dramatic,
temporary spikes in your blood pressure. If those temporary spikes occur frequently, such as every
day, they can cause damage to your blood vessels, heart and kidneys, as can chronic high blood pressure.
There
is compelling evidence that your level of stress can cause an increase in bad cholesterol indirectly. For example, one study found that stress is positively linked to having less healthy
dietary habits, a higher body weight, and a less healthy diet, all of
which are known risk factors for high cholesterol
Behaving in an
apprehensive manner (anxiety) causes the body to produce the stress response.
The stress response immediately secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream
where they travel to targeted spots in the body to bring about specific
physiological, psychological, and emotional changes that enhance the body's
ability to deal with a threat - to either fight with or flee from it - which is
the reason the stress response is often referred to as the fight or flight response.
Part of the stress response changes include
elevating heart rate (which increases blood pressure) and increasing blood
sugar so that the body is better equipped to fight or flee.
When stress responses occur infrequently, the
body can recover relatively quickly from the physiological, psychological, and
emotional changes the stress response brings about. Consequently, the stress
response changes are temporary. Under normal circumstances, these changes
quickly subside and present no long-term effects.
When stress responses occur too frequently
and/or dramatically, however, the body has a more difficult time recovering,
which can cause the body to remain in a semi hyperstimulated state, since
stress hormones are stimulants. We call this semi hyperstimulated state, stress-response hyperstimulation.
A body that becomes stress-response
hyperstimulated can maintain the stress response changes long after a threat
has passed. These changes can cause a persistent increase in blood pressure and
blood sugar. In this case, yes, frequently behaving anxiously can cause blood
pressure (including the systolic rate - the top number in a blood pressure
reading) and blood sugar to rise.
Moreover, stress responses stress the body.
Research has shown that persistent stress, such as that from stress-response
hyperstimulation, can cause the bad cholesterol levels to rise. So here again,
yes, frequently behaving apprehensively can cause the bad cholesterol levels to
rise.
With regard to bad cholesterol, there can be
other factors involved, too, such as diet, level of physical activity, and how
your body produces cholesterol. But stress itself has been linked to an
increase in bad cholesterol.
With the above in mind, again, yes, behaving
anxiously can cause an increase in systolic rate, blood sugar, and bad
cholesterol.
Comments
Post a Comment