Cardiovascular and Pain Regulatory Systems.Several recent findings provide evidence that cardiovascular and pain regulatory systems are interactive. The physiological responses to acute pain are discussed and hypothetical organizational models that explain how cardiovascular and pain regulatory systems interact are proposed. The adaptive value of interactions between cardiovascular and pain regulatory systems is discussed. It is proposed that maladaptive cardiovascular‐somatosensory interactions may contribute to several cardiovascular disorders such as essential hypertension, asymptomatic myocardial ischemia, and life‐threatening cardiac arrhythm