Risk Factors for High Blood Pressure

Risk factors are habits or traits that make a person more likely to develop a disease. There are some risk factors for high blood pressure that you can do something about. Risk factors that you can reduce include a high sodium (salt) intake and obesity (being overweight). A sedentary lifestyle - being inactive and not exercising regularly - can increase a person's chances for high blood pressure. Heavy drinking of alcohol will raise blood pressure. If you do drink alcohol, try not to drink more than 1 drink per day for women. If you are pregnant, you should not drink at all.

There are some risk factors for high blood pressure that you can't change. Heredity is one of these factors because high blood pressure tends to run in families. Racial background is another factor. Blacks are more likely to have high blood pressure than whites. Gender also plays a role in high blood pressure risk. Men have a greater risk of high blood pressure than do women up until age 55, then the risks become similar for men and women. At age 75 and older, women are more likely than men to have high blood pressure. Age is a risk factor for both women and men. Blood pressure tends to increase with age, and older people are more likely to have high blood pressure than younger people.