{"id":2015,"date":"2020-04-28T14:51:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T12:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/?p=2015"},"modified":"2020-04-28T15:07:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T13:07:20","slug":"can-stress-increase-your-blood-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/can-stress-increase-your-blood-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Can stress increase your blood pressure?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Colette Dreyer RD (SA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Managing stress to keep blood pressure low<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone handles stress in a different way. Do you eat and\nsleep more, or sleep less, skip meals or drink more alcohol? It\u2019s important to\nidentify how stress affects you. Stress is a risk factor for high blood\npressure and heart disease. Being stressed and not managing it could lead to\nunhealthy behaviours that can lead to increased blood pressure or heart\ndiseases. Therefore, its essential to identify your stress behaviours and learn\nto manage stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>General tips: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Ensure that you get at least 7-9 hours of sleep\nin every day. Inadequate sleep can influence your energy level, physical\nhealth, mood and mental alertness. If you are struggling to sleep, try to\nimprove sleep hygiene.<\/li><li>Increase physical activity- Exercise has been\nshown to be one of the best stress relievers. It plays a role in debriefing and\nlet out of all frustrations. <\/li><li>Follow a well-balanced diet- This plays a large\nrole as coping mechanism as certain nutrients will be used up quickly in\nstressful situations. These nutrients include vitamin B that plays a role in a\nhealthy central nervous system and energy levels, as well as vitamin C and zinc\nthat has a large role in the immune system. <\/li><li>Avoid stressful situations by planning in\nadvance. Make a to do list and prioritize. <\/li><li>Laugh as much as you can, it\u2019s the bodies\nnatural stress relief mechanism. <\/li><li>Set out time to do things you love, and just\ntake your mind off of things. <\/li><li>Exchange the bad habits with good habits. Try to\navoid smoking, drinking alcohol or excess coffee, and overeating. Rather focus\non exercising, drinking enough water and eating a healthy balanced diet. <\/li><li>If you still struggle to manage stress, talk to\na family member, a friend or a professional such as a psychologist. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa. Healthy\neating guidelines. Available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heartfoundation.co.za\/healthy-eating\/\">http:\/\/www.heartfoundation.co.za\/healthy-eating\/<\/a>\n(Accessed 9 March 2020).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Colette Dreyer RD (SA) Managing stress to keep blood pressure low Everyone handles stress in a different way. Do you eat and sleep more, or sleep less, skip meals or drink more alcohol? It\u2019s important to identify how stress affects you. Stress is a risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease. Being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[68,93,94],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Stress-increase-BP.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CNFS-wv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2018,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2015\/revisions\/2018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}