Humans are social beings. This means happenings in the environments alter the state of their health. From positive events such as a win, to negative occurrences such as missing a train, every action has corresponding body reactions. Truly, the human body is not immune to prevailing circumstances.

The reality of the human body configuration sometimes becomes obvious, especially during periods of emotional or social extremes. For example, joy, sadness, grief, war, riots, pandemics, and conflicts. During these moments, it is not uncommon to be informed of sudden change in the state of health of persons when faced by these extremes:

Sudden collapse, slumps, cardiac arrests, strokes, deaths…

These, and more are repeatedly heard on news or social media during moments of heightened emotional imbalances. Often, when such occurrences are investigated, hypertension is often found to be the culprit.

Deciphering the Connection

The political sphere is without doubt linked with outbursts of emotions, actions, games and gimmicks. Perhaps, a simple cause is the desire of the parties involved to win, retain dominance, or silence the opposition.

These acts result in a lot of physical, emotional and psychological stress on individuals who are the key players. Therefore, it is important to explore hypertension in the political arena.

Hypertension (also known as high blood pressure) refers to the elevation of the force with which blood pushes through the blood vessels. This is often defined by blood pressure readings perceived from the walls of the arteries measured by a suitable device. The first grade of hypertension is usually taken as blood pressure values above 140/90 mmHg.

As expected, a lot of scientific effort and research has been done to determine the causes of hypertension. Interestingly, some factors such as age, sex, and race have been identified as risk factors for hypertension. While “politics” is not likely to be expressly written as a risk factor for hypertension, “stress,” which politics may produce is implicated as a risk factor for hypertension.

Now, the question is, “am I at the risk of developing hypertension just because we are in the political season?”

Not so. Especially if you are not constantly and continuously exposed to stressors emanating from political occurrences, or being an active player in political processes.

However, to consider the fact that political news and activities are aired with veracity all year round, and these even become intensified during election periods, political stress may be generated long enough and severe enough to affect the cardiovascular health of persons.

Take for example, some scientists in the US were curious about what happens to the cardiovascular health of people during elections. Dr Naomi Fisher of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reported a rise in the blood pressure of patients during campaign speeches or debates. This, she explained is due to reactions of getting angry, enraged, or getting emotionally upset during the process.

In addition, two studies observed the blood pressures and heart rhythms of persons during the 2016 US presidential elections. It was found that political uncertainty and divisiveness during elections can result in stress for many people. This resulted in increased blood pressure and more cases of abnormal heart rhythms. This result was even more discovered in people who already had hypertension.

The Way Out

Politics, and its processes (including elections), are a normal part of human societies, and will continue to be. More or less, there is no means of escaping from the political structure that is used to govern and elect leaders.

Yet, the stressors (such as cortisol and epinephrine) which may be released into the body by political events are not so beneficial, as they can contribute to increase in the blood pressure, especially when sustained. This fact makes it important for every individual to be aware of the health consequences of uncontrolled exposure to “politically-induced stressors,” and events.

Sometimes, it pays to take short breaks from political news, especially for people who have background histories of high blood pressure and heart conditions. This “political break” can be used for meditation or recreational activities to relieve stress.

Again, the importance of regular blood pressure checks cannot be overemphasized. Often, hypertension usually lies undetected when not measured. When this happens, many persons have already suffered a stroke or a heart attack before they discover that they have been hypertensive.

As the nation prepares for another wave of political actions, the citizens must be aware of the need to keep their health status in check, which may help to prevent sudden health calamities.