@ehdog

That’s a really common question, and it makes sense to be confused. Tension headaches aren’t caused by sustained high blood pressure, they’re caused by muscle tension, stress, and nerve sensitivity. Once a headache starts, it can linger for days or even weeks, even though your blood pressure stays normal the whole time. Something like stress, TMJ, jaw clenching, or neck tension can trigger it, and then your muscles stay tight and your nerves stay sensitized, keeping your body stuck in a “pain loop.” The headache keeps going because the muscles and nerves haven’t relaxed yet, not because your BP is high. Your blood pressure may spike briefly during stress or pain, but that’s temporary and doesn’t sustain the headache. So essentially, your muscles and nerves are driving the pain for weeks, not your blood pressure.

Even if your reading was slightly off in office due to moving or lower down, it would actually be a little lower rather than the higher reading , so a reading of 114/80 would probably be closer to 110/70 or 109/70, which is still very normal. Great even.