Almost everyone deals with stress, including pressure from relationships with co-workers, friends, and family, as well as concerns related to finances.

When you add physical stress caused by smoking, excess drinking, diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea, or certain medications, there's a good chance that over time your systolic (the top number) blood pressure may surge and then fall, only to rise again.

That's a condition called systolic blood pressure variability (SBPV), and over the course of a decade having that top number fluctuate is a signal that you're at higher risk for cardiovascular and kidney diseases — as well as increased risk of death.

A study in the European Heart Journal that followed more than 36,000 found that if systolic your blood pressure repeatedly fluctuated by more than 3 points over the past five to 10 years, your risks for those health challenges are 23% to 33% higher than people with the least SBPV.

To help steady your systolic blood pressure, it’s important to manage both chronic and acute stress using meditation, physical exercise, smart nutrition, and interaction with your posse. Maintaining a consistently healthy weight is also helpful.

Ask your doctor if any of your medications — such as cold and allergy meds or antihypertensives — could cause SBPV. And get checked to see if cardiovascular disease is making your arteries stiff.

For more help protecting yourself from the damage that SBPV can do, check out the updated version of "YOU: The Owner's Manual."