Simple ways to calm 'white-coat hypertension'

If stepping into the doctor's office sends your blood pressure soaring, you might be at higher risk for cardiac issues. Here, proven strategies to help you dodge anxiety—and safeguard your heart

- KRISTINA MASTROCOLA

Your annual physical is coming up, and just thinking about it fills you with dread and sends your heart racing. Whether you’re worried over test results or concerned about being weighed or judged in some way, such anxiety can lead to whitecoat hypertension, a phenomenon in which your nervousness spikes blood-pressure results.

“This condition happens when anxiety causes increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure in a clinical setting, like a doctor’s office, leading to a higher reading than it would have been if you took your blood pressure at home,” explains Kyla Lara-Breitinger, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and co-director of the hospital’s Cardiometabolic Clinic. It may seem like a newfangled term, but this syndrome has been around “since the time doctors first started wearing white coats,” she confirms.

In fact, research in the journal Hypertension found that up to 60% of people have experienced whitecoat hypertension. And a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that when untreated, it can lead to a higher risk of heart attack or other cardiac events—especially in people over the age of 55.

It’s important to note that this isn’t the same as a panic attack, adds psychiatrist Erika Balfour, M.D., author of