Why Pain Raises Your Blood Pressure

We can understand blood pressure as the force of blood pressing against the walls of your arteries, as it flows throughout your body. The flow is increased when your heart beats, and it subsides in between beats. The blood pressure value recorded for the beat is called the systolic value, and the value of the pressure during the rest phase between the heartbeats is called the diastolic value; this is usually lower.

Your blood pressure is described numerically as the systolic value over the diastolic value, for example, 95/80.

Relationship Between Pain and Blood Pressure

Your blood pressure increases as part of your body's response to pain. Pain signals travel to the brain, and the body reacts either by a simple reflex to remove itself from the source of pain (such as jerking your hand away after touching a hot stove) or by the 3F response (fight, flight, or freeze).

How Pain Causes High Blood Pressure

Your blood pressure responds to a pain message from the nerve endings. The message goes to the brain and, from there, to the whole body. For example, when you stub your toe, the pain registers in the brain, which sends messages to the whole body in response. The 3F response triggers the release of adrenaline and other chemicals, causing the heart to pump more blood to the whole body to prepare you for a potential fight or flight scenario—this elevates your blood pressure.

The brain may then react by shrinking the arteries to prevent blood from flowing excessively to the brain itself. This raises blood pressure too. Then the brain works to reduce the pain and diminish the pumping of the heart by releasing endorphins.

Did you know that it's possible to have a stroke with normal blood pressure?