12 Surprising Things That Can Raise Your Blood Pressure

It’s not just salt and stress — sleep apnea, hormonal imbalances and other unusual things can raise blood pressure too

Rachel Nania and Nicole Pajer

Updated June 09, 2025

AARP

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Published April 21, 2022

/ Updated June 09, 2025

collage of sugar, sleep anea, alcohol, black licorice and cigarettes

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High Blood Pressure Guide

If you’re watching your blood pressure, you probably know common triggers that cause it to spike — too much salt or stress, for example.

But other factors can also raise your blood pressure and undermine your well-intentioned efforts to keep it in check, including certain foods, lifestyle habits and some underlying health conditions.

Read on for 12 surprising things that can send your numbers soaring.

1. Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that causes a person to stop and restart breathing several times throughout the night, is one of the unusual causes of high blood pressure. And sleep apnea is becoming increasingly common in the U.S. as more Americans become overweight, says Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., director of the Framingham Center for Population and Prevention Science and primary investigator for the Framingham Heart Study. He also is past president of the American Heart Association. Excess weight is one of the leading risk factors for developing sleep apnea; age is another big one.

When a person with sleep apnea stops breathing, their brain steps in and wakes their body up to take a breath; this can happen 30 times or more an hour. “And when we don’t get good quality sleep — and particularly if we’re not getting good quality sleep because our airway gets closed and our brain and our body have to maintain enough awareness to try to open up the airway — that is very, very hard on the vascular system,” Lloyd-Jones says.

All the stress and strain are what give you high blood pressure — “and not just when we’re asleep but also when we’re awake for the rest of the day,” Lloyd-Jones says. It’s associated with a whole host of other health issues too, including an increased risk for heart attack, Type 2 diabetes and liver problems. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine found that severe sleep apnea in middle or old age can increase the risk of premature death by up to 46 percent.

Snoring is a common warning sign of sleep apnea, so if someone tells you that you snore loudly or gasp often during sleep, talk to your health care provider. A number of devices and therapies can help treat sleep apnea, and studies suggest that treatment with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine can reduce blood pressure numbers in just three months.

2. Irregular sleep schedule

What are the symptoms of high blood pressure?

High blood pressure — or hypertension — is often called the “silent killer” because it usually doesn’t have symptoms. But it can still be dangerous and cause damage to your blood vessels, heart, brain, kidneys, eyes and more. If left undetected or uncontrolled, high blood pressure can lead to:

Heart attack
Stroke
Heart failure
Kidney disease
Vision loss
Sexual dysfunction
Angina (chest pain)
Peripheral artery disease (narrowing of your arteries)

It’s estimated that nearly half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, which is when the systolic (top number) is at least 130 millimeters Hg (mercury) or the diastolic (bottom number) is 80 mm Hg or more. Only about 1 in 4 adults with high blood pressure have it under control.

Source: American Heart Association, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Apnea isn’t the only thing during your sleep cycle that causes sudden high blood pressure. “People who don’t get six to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep can have elevated blood pressure,” says Luke Laffin, M.D., codirector of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at the Cleveland Clinic.

Several studies have found that sleepless nights can raise blood pressure not only throughout the night but also during the next day.

For quality sleep, go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, avoid drinking and eating 90 minutes before bed and don’t watch television or use your smartphone in bed. If you wake up and can’t fall back to sleep in 20 minutes, get up and do something else, Laffin says.

3. A full bladder

A full bladder is one of the causes of sudden high blood pressure that you can control. “A full bladder raises blood pressure about 10 to 15 points,” Laffin explains. When your bladder is full, it sends a signal to your brain to activate your nervous system, which can cause high blood pressure.

That’s why the American Heart Association recommends urinating before taking a blood pressure reading to ensure the most accurate results, particularly if you’re monitoring it at home.

“It’s fine to hold your urine if you’re in a situation where you cannot urinate freely. But if you have to urinate and can use the restroom, then you shouldn’t necessarily delay,” Laffin says.

Speaking of urination, getting up frequently at night to go may be a sign of hypertension. “If your blood pressure is elevated, that causes the body to say, ‘I need to lower my blood pressure.’ One way to do that is to urinate,” Laffin says.

4. Air pollution

Research reveals that exposure to both “fine particulate matter” air pollution (what’s in car exhaust and burning fuel, for example) and “coarse particulate matter” air pollution (like dust from roads and construction sites) can increase blood pressure in both adults and children. In 2022 (when the latest data is available), 99 percent of the global population lived in places where air quality didn’t meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

A study led by University of Michigan researchers found that even short-term exposure to high levels of air pollution can affect blood pressure in healthy adults. The change in high blood pressure was similar to what a person might see if they gained about 5 or 10 pounds, the researchers said in a news release.

A separate meta-analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health successfully demonstrated how to lower blood pressure simply by filtering the air. The research looked at 10 trials with more than 600 participants and found that filtering air with personal air cleaners can help lower your systolic blood pressure. Exercise can also lower high blood pressure, even in places where pollution levels are high, a 2020 study found.

In addition to car pollution, traffic noise has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure.

5. Black licorice overdose

Eating too much black licorice — we’re talking the real deal, not just licorice-flavored candy — can be a health hazard, and not just because of its sugar content. The candy contains the compound glycyrrhizin, derived from the licorice root, which can cause your body to hold on to lots of salt and water, thereby driving your blood pressure up. Eating black licorice can also lead to low potassium levels and abnormal heart rhythms. And if you already have some preexisting conditions, like low potassium or hypertension, you could be even more sensitive to glycyrrhizin.

So be careful how much black licorice you eat. A 2024 Swedish study concluded that eating 100 milligrams of black licorice every day, which the WHO established in 2005 as safe, for two weeks was enough to raise blood pressure by about 3.1 mm Hg.

What is high blood pressure?

Category	Systolic Blood Pressure	Diastolic Blood Pressure
Normal	<120 mm Hg	<80 mm Hg
Elevated	120-129 mm Hg	<80 mm Hg
Stage 1 Hypertension	130-139 mm Hg	80-89 mm Hg
Stage 2 Hypertension	≥140 mm Hg	≥90 mm Hg

6. Drinking alcohol

You’ve probably heard that drinking red wine in moderation can be good for your heart. But the American Heart Association says there’s no science to back up this claim. And the potential cardiovascular benefits from the flavonoids in red wine are also in healthier sources like grapes and blueberries.

Research does show that drinking alcohol, even just one drink a day, is linked to high blood pressure.

While drinking alcohol initially relaxes and widens your blood vessels, lowering your blood pressure, it’s only temporary, and your vessels start to constrict once your liver metabolizes it.

Heavy drinkers (more than three drinks a day for women, four for men) who cut back to one drink a day for women, two for men may be able to lower their systolic pressure reading by about 5.5 mm Hg and their diastolic number by about 4 mm Hg, according to the Mayo Clinic.

7. Not enough potassium

Too much sodium is a long-established cause of elevated blood pressure. But a diet rich in potassium is one way to lower blood pressure.

Salt increases blood pressure, but potassium decreases blood pressure by causing our bodies to release sodium, says Seamus Whelton, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Division of Cardiology. “About 75 percent of the sodium most people consume is already in food when they buy it,” Whelton says. So swapping out processed foods and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables is key to increasing your potassium and reducing your sodium.

Men need 3,400 mg of potassium per day and women about 2,600 mg. But the American Heart Association recommends getting between 3,500 and 5,000 mg if you’re trying to lower your blood pressure.

Foods rich in potassium include potatoes, spinach, jackfruit, bananas, grapefruit and beans. Many foods included in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet are good sources of potassium. Whelton also advocates eating the American Heart Association’s recommended four to five servings of fruits and four to five servings of vegetables per day. There’s no need to take potassium supplements unless your doctor recommends it.

8. Loneliness

“As a species, we’re not meant to be without other people,” says Annalijn Conklin, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. “If you are socially isolated, it raises your cortisol levels to put you in a fight-or-flight response.”

A study Conklin conducted of 28,238 adults ages 45 to 85 found that for women, being single, having limited social activity or being part of a smaller social network was linked to higher than average blood pressure.

Interestingly, Conklin’s study found that men who lived alone or had small social networks were less likely to have high blood pressure than those who lived with others or had large networks (greater than 220 people). It’s unclear whether the difference was due to biological reasons or simply because there’s less stigma around the idea of men going it alone.

That said, feeling isolated is not good for your arteries. Another, smaller study of adults ages 50 to 68 found that those with the highest scores on a loneliness survey had a systolic blood pressure that was 10 to 30 points higher than their less lonely counterparts.

9. Medications and supplements

Headache? Joint pain? Be mindful of what you reach for when you head to the medicine cabinet. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve) can raise blood pressure. And so can regular use of acetaminophen (Tylenol), according to a study published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.

“Any time people are using those types of medications for pain control, if they’re using them continuously, they need to get with their doctor,” Lloyd-Jones says.

Other over-the-counter medications to be aware of: decongestants, which relieve stuffiness by narrowing blood vessels to reduce swelling in the nose. This can also raise blood pressure. “So you don’t want to use them consistently or routinely,” Lloyd-Jones says. Even supplements like ginseng and ephedra are associated with increased blood pressure.

10. Added sugar

When we eat sugar, our bodies release insulin to help clear the sugar from our blood and get it into the cells, where it can be used for energy.

“But insulin, itself, tends to drive up blood pressure in many people,” Lloyd-Jones says. “So if you’re eating a lot of added sugar or simple starches, you’re having these more intense and longer bursts of insulin, which will raise blood pressure.”

Added sugar, like corn syrup, is common in cakes, cookies, yogurt, breakfast cereals and soda. In fact, drinking one 12-ounce drink with added sugar every day could raise your chances of having high blood pressure by at least 6 percent.

11. Smoking

Yet another reason to quit smoking: It’s a proven risk factor for heart attack and stroke and can increase the risk of plaque buildup in your arteries. Nicotine is to blame, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. Smoking causes the blood vessels to narrow and the heart to beat faster, every time you light up, which causes a sudden spike in blood pressure.

“If you look at the monitoring, it’s clear that the blood pressure [of smokers] over a 24-hour period is higher than [that of] nonsmokers,” says J. Brian Byrd, M.D., an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan.

12. Other health conditions

Other health conditions can affect your blood pressure, including the overproduction of a hormone called aldosterone, which helps keep your levels of sodium and potassium balanced. Byrd says people who haven’t had any luck lowering their high blood pressure with multiple medications should talk to their doctor because “there’s a reasonably good chance that they have a condition called primary aldosteronism.” The condition is often missed, Byrd says, but medications can treat it.

Your symptoms of high blood pressure could also be from issues with your kidneys or thyroid gland.

As your age increases, so does your risk of a thyroid disorder. Both overactive and underactive thyroids can raise blood pressure. A severely overactive thyroid can boost your risk of cardiovascular issues, says Nicole Ronda Bloom, M.D., an accredited endocrinologist based in New Hyde Park, New York.

Bloom encourages her patients to get their levels checked annually during physicals, or every six months if they have a strong family history of thyroid disease or symptoms. And if you are on thyroid medication, make sure you’re taking it as prescribed.

“Skipping medicine for low thyroid doesn’t often cause high blood pressure, but missing medicine for high thyroid can be problematic,” she adds.

Don’t forget about the usual suspects

It’s important not to overlook the biggest drivers of high blood pressure in the U.S., the chief of which is weight. If you’re overweight, losing even a few pounds can have a big impact on blood pressure — you can reduce your numbers by 1 mm Hg for every 2.2 pounds you lose, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Stay on top of your numbers by taking your blood pressure often and “understand where you are on the spectrum,” Lloyd-Jones says. You can do this at home with a cuff-style biceps monitor.

If you notice your blood pressure is starting to increase or if it’s already elevated (a systolic, or top, number that’s less than 120 and a diastolic, or bottom, number that’s less than 80 are considered normal), it’s important to know the foods and habits that can make it worse, Lloyd-Jones notes. It’s also important to work with a doctor to find the best way to control it, be it with medications, lifestyle changes or both.

“Home blood pressure monitoring is a really important and empowering way for patients to take control of this,” Lloyd-Jones says.

White Coat Syndrome

Has your blood pressure ever been higher at the doctor’s office than it typically is at home? A 2017 study in the Journal of Hypertension found that up to 30 percent of people with increased blood pressure have conflicting in-office and out-of-office blood pressure readings.

This condition, known as “white coat hypertension,” could be caused by many factors, including feeling stressed in the presence of health care providers. It’s not a trivial thing: White coat hypertension is linked to a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

“For a diagnosis of hypertension, you want two elevated readings on at least two separate occasions,” Johns Hopkins’ Whelton says. “So we never want to adjust somebody’s medications based on a single blood pressure reading.”

If your doctor rechecks your blood pressure during your appointment and it’s still high, they’ll likely advise you to continue checking it at home in the weeks that follow and report those numbers at your next appointment.

Editor’s note: This story, originally published April 21, 2022, has been updated to reflect new information and new reporting from Nicole Pajer and Sarah Gleim.

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Rachel Nania is an award-winning health editor and writer at AARP.org, who covers a range of topics including diseases and treatments.

Nicole Pajer writes about health for The New York Times, Woman’s Day and other publications.