How you feel about yourself and your life affects the likelihood of developing high blood pressure in years to come.
Researchers at the Human Population Laboratory in Berkeley, California, have studied 2,357 people in the local population, hoping to discover the psychological factors that influence high blood pressure.

It appeared that women who suffered from depression, or felt socially isolated, were more likely to develop high blood pressure. The same was true of women in low-status work. In general, these psychosocial factors operated through unhealthy behaviours – smoking and obesity, for instance.

For men, job insecurity and unemployment was more relevant to high blood pressure. And even when the effect of unhealthy behaviour was allowed for, in both men and women, there was still an impact of personal psychology on the risk of developing high blood pressure.