Hypertension Risk Factors Research Note
By Reader's Digest Editors
A brief digest about this topic
We all share a potent risk factor for high blood pressure: Advancing age, which makes arteries less flexible. After age 55, you have a 90% lifetime risk for developing hypertension. The age gap is a big one. Between ages 20 and 34, just 6 in 100 American women and 13 out of 100 American men have high blood pressure. But by age 74, 65 in 100 men and 70 in 100 women have it. And the number of birthdays you celebrated isn’t the only thing that increases your odds. Gender matters, too. Until age 45, men are at higher risk; women and men share equal odds from age 45 to 64; after that, women’s chances for hypertension are higher, thanks to dwindling levels of artery-pampering estrogen.
Fast Facts:- Being overweight increases your risk for high blood pressure by 45%; if you’re obese, your odds for high blood pressure are 90% higher than normal.
- A family history of high blood pressure or diabetes and being of African-American descent also increase risk.
- Factors you can control include a sedentary lifestyle, which boosts risk 35%, and skipping produce and low-fat dairy products.
- Not taking care of high-normal blood pressure (prehypertension) more than triples your odds for developing hypertension.
- One in ten women may develop a dangerous type of high blood pressure during pregnancy called pre-eclampsia.
Understand Your Risk for High Blood Pressure
heart.org — “If you're an adult and your blood pressure is 140/90 mm Hg or above, you have hypertension. Learn what to do.” View full resource at heart.org
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