How Living in Spain Affected My Health: Blood Pressure, Depression, and Migraines

 

Blazing Altocumulus: A Fiery Sky, A Soothing Evening in Oviedo*

I moved to Spain for my mental health. Associated changes began to appear later, noticed only after familiar numbers began behaving differently.

Over time, it became difficult to ignore how living in Spain affected my health in measurable ways. Not dramatically. Not magically. But consistently.

This is not a story about a cure. It’s about what happens when the body no longer has to brace itself as often.

How Living in Spain Affected My Blood Pressure

Full disclosure: I have longstanding hypertension. My father's side has all the cardiovascular disease. It became prominent in medical school and residency training when I began my low-sodium diet. Hypertension did not disappear when I changed countries from the US to Spain. What shifted was stability.

After settling into daily life here, my readings began trending lower until I was able to drop one of my two medications and became more consistent without major medication changes or dramatic lifestyle overhauls.

Blood pressure is tightly linked to sympathetic tone. When vigilance decreases, vascular resistance often follows. Living in Spain affected my health not by curing hypertension, but by reducing the subtle daily stress responses that sustain it.

Vigilance: Living in Spain and the Reduction of Ambient Threat

Spain is not perfect. But the default posture feels less suspicious.

One moment stands out clearly a few nights after I arrived in Oviedo: a young white woman was approaching me on the sidewalk. My mind switched to Black American mode. Oh, no. I know she's going to cross the street. I was in for a surprise. Not only did she not cross the street, she passed so close that she practically brushed against me as if she hadn't even noticed me. 

That reaction revealed how deeply American racial conditioning had embedded itself in my nervous system. Chronic vigilance reshapes cortisol rhythms. Cortisol reshapes blood pressure, glucose, sleep, and mood.

When vigilance drops, physiology follows.

Twice, in the early days, when I entered one of Oviedo's flagship department store, El Corte Inglés, I warily glanced back at the security guard at the door to see if he was following me with his eyes. He was not. In fact, he had shown little to no interest as I had entered the store.

Security guard at El Corte Inglés

Cortisol, Diurnal Rhythms, and Chronic Vigilance

Cortisol normally peaks in the morning, declines through the day, and drops at night to allow repair. Chronic stress disrupts this rhythm.

Among many Black Americans, studies show altered diurnal patterns—blunted morning rise, elevated daytime baseline, and insufficient nocturnal decline. This pattern correlates with hypertension, insulin resistance, and mood instability.

This isn’t about dramatic trauma. It’s about chronic vigilance.

Early in Spain, I noticed the absence of something. Walking at night, I wasn’t mentally rehearsing explanations for my presence to a citizen or police officer. Entering a department store, I expected scrutiny from security and received none. 

These moments might seem minor, but physiologically, they are not. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responds to anticipation as readily as to threat. When vigilance becomes unnecessary, endocrine tone likely shifts.

               The Stress Response (Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis by Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc)

Living in Spain plausibly affected my health, particularly in cortisol regulation—before I consciously named it.

How Living in Spain Affected My Depression

I have lived with long-term depression for decades. Spain did not erase that.

What has changed, preliminarily, is stability. My mood feels less reactive, and more stable. Under supervision, I am cautiously evaluating whether one antidepressant can be tapered--so far, so good! This is an ongoing assessment, not a conclusion.

Depression is neurochemical, but it is also contextual. Fewer aggravating inputs make regulation less effortful.

Olive Oil and the Siesta

When I first arrived, I found it irritating that shops closed for siesta (mostly 2-4:30 PM) and that Sundays were largely shut down. My reflex was impatience.

                            

                                

What! The Apple Store closed at 

3:00 PM? Why?

Over time, that shifted. If everything is closed, there is nowhere to go. If there is nowhere to go, there is nothing to chase. So Sundays, when so many places are shut, it's a permission slip to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast at a café (those don't close!), or Netflix and chill.

The culture imposed a pause and I learned to embrace it as a way to slow down..

That matters. Structural limits on productivity reduce structural arousal. Taken together, the cumulative effect is not trivial.

How Living in Spain Affected My Blood Sugar

My fasting glucose has hovered near the borderline range for years. Recently, those numbers have begun to resemble values I last saw two decades ago. The trend is encouraging, although the verdict is still out, and long-term monitoring will tell the real story.

One change has been the quality of dietary fat. In Spain, fresh, high-polyphenol extra-virgin olive oil is standard. The bitterness and peppery finish signal the presence of antioxidant content rarely encountered in typical American supermarket oils.

Olive oil alone does not explain improved glucose trends. Stress hormones likely play an even larger role.

Olive Oil in Spain vs. Olive Oil in the United States

One dietary difference deserves more precision.

In Spain, especially in producing regions, fresh extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is widely available and often locally sourced. Varieties like Picual are unapologetically robust—green, bitter, peppery, sometimes almost aggressive to an unaccustomed palate. That peppery sensation in the throat is not a flaw; it reflects high polyphenol content, particularly oleocanthal compounds associated with anti-inflammatory effects.

For many Americans, the first taste of fresh Picual EVOO can be startling. It does not resemble the neutral, soft, sometimes flat oils commonly sold in U.S. supermarkets. It can feel sharp. Almost too sharp. That reaction itself says something.

                                          A bottle of early-harvest Spanish extra-virgin olive oil 

“Primer Día de Cosecha 2025” indicates oil pressed from olives harvested on the very first day of the season. It is extra-virgin olive oil made from the Picual olive variety, produced by the renowned Castillo de Canena estate in Andalusia. As in this case, EVOO should be in a glass bottle (never plastic) or a metal can.

In the United States, olive oil quality is highly variable. While excellent oils certainly exist, much of what is sold in large supermarkets:

• Is blended from multiple countries

• Has been stored for long periods before purchase

• May be past peak freshness by the time it reaches consumers

• Often lacks harvest date transparency

Several industry investigations over the past two decades have shown that some imported oils labeled “extra virgin” fail to meet strict chemical and sensory standards. Oxidation during transport and storage is also common, reducing polyphenol levels and altering flavor. The result is that many Americans have never actually tasted high-polyphenol, freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil. When they do, the bitterness and throat sting can come as a shock.

Why does this matter clinically?

Polyphenols in high-quality EVOO are associated with:

• Improved endothelial function

• Reduced oxidative stress

• Better insulin sensitivity

• Anti-inflammatory activity

How Living in Spain Affected My Migraines

Finally, migraines have been another long-standing health challenge. For years, nocturnal headaches were a regular feature of my nights, often followed by daytime episodes severe enough to interrupt normal activity, including, significantly, my writing: hours looking at a laptop screen is a strong migraine trigger. This wrecked my novel-writing throughout 2025.

Under the skilled guidance of a highly regarded Spanish neurologist, that pattern has changed markedly. My nighttime headaches have fallen by roughly 75 percent, and daytime events are now far more manageable. Occasionally, a severe episode still forces me to lie down for an hour or two, but those disruptions have become uncommon.

The story is still unfolding, but the direction is encouraging. Better medical management—including thoughtful medication adjustments—may be contributing to the improvement, as may reduced stress signaling.

Migraines and depression are also closely linked. Migraines can trigger depressive episodes, and depression can lower the threshold for migraines. Stabilizing one often helps stabilize the other.

Final Thoughts

Spain did not cure my hypertension. It did not eliminate borderline glucose levels. It did not erase depression. However, all of these are trending in the desired direction. What it appears to have done is remove a layer of chronic strain.

Health is not only what we ingest or prescribe. It is also what the body prepares for. Living in Spain affected my health not through intervention, but through subtraction. And sometimes subtraction changes the numbers.

*All images by the author unless otherwise stated.

★ Don't forget to follow me on Instagram for more content @kweiquarteyauthor ★