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High blood pressure in adolescents may have a bright side. A new study suggests that hypertensive teenagers have higher academic achievement and fewer emotional and behavioral problems than peers with normal blood pressure.

German researchers gave physical examinations to 7,688 boys and girls ages 11 to 17, and found that almost 11 percent had high blood pressure. They administered two well-validated questionnaires on psychological distress and quality of life to the children and their parents. The results appear in the May issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Unsurprisingly, the children with hypertension were more likely to be overweight, spent more time in front of TVs or computers and were more likely to feel physically unfit.

But even after controlling for many variables, the researchers found that hypertensive children performed better in school, had higher self-esteem and were less likely to report symptoms of hyperactivity. Parents of hypertensive children rated their offspring as less distressed and more satisfied with their lives than did parents of children with normal blood pressure.

Why? One possibility suggested by the senior author, Dr. Christoph Herrmann-Lingen, a professor of psychosomatic medicine at the University of Göttingen, is that elevated blood pressure may stimulate nerve fibers in the brain that soothe negative feelings, creating a biological feedback loop.

“If people find that increasing their blood pressure makes them feel better,” he said, “they may learn this as a conditioned response to stress.”