High blood pressure has many different risk factors, and not all of them can be controlled. While family history and age both play an important role in the potential for developing high blood pressure, there isn't anything you can do to change your genetic background or how old you are. Fortunately, many risk factors do have controllable aspects, which can help provide a focus for patients looking to minimize their chances of developing hypertension.
Physical Fitness
Physical fitness impacts blood pressure in several ways. Exercise strengthens the heart and helps it pump more efficiently. At the same time, it improves the “stretchiness” of blood vessels, allowing them to more easily adapt to changes in blood flow without causing large changes in blood pressure. Exercise also helps avoid excess body weight, which has been shown to be a vital risk factor for the development of high blood pressure.
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Food
Diet can play a major role in determining blood pressure. The effects of most foods on long-term blood pressure are fairly indirect. Rather than causing large, immediate changes in blood pressure, most dietary effects work by mechanisms that are more complex. Certain nutrients, like potassium, help regulate how tense blood vessels are, while others, like saturated fats, affect overall blood vessel health. Eating a healthy, balanced diet can also help modulate the production of certain hormones that have been shown to cause changes in blood pressure.
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Stress
Stress directly affects blood pressure in the short term and activates other mechanisms that can elevate it over the long term. Stressful situations stimulate the body’s fight-or-flight mechanisms, which raise heart rate, increase breathing, and elevate blood pressure. These responses are left over from an earlier time, when a “stressful situation” might mean having to run away from a predator. Though people don’t do much running away from lions anymore, these protective mechanisms persist. Over time, persistent stress causes hormones – like epinephrine – to remain at elevated levels. This leads to increased blood pressure that may not go away even when no immediate stressors are present.
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