There are often no symptoms of high blood pressure. And there are several factors that increase your risk of developing hypertension. Some of these risk factors cannot be controlled.
Age
The risk of high blood pressure will likely increase as you get older. In fact, 67% of US adults aged 60 years and older have high blood pressure, compared to 7% of US adults aged 18–39 years.
Gender
Before the age of 45, a higher percentage of men than women have high blood pressure. Between the age of 45 and 64 the percentages are similar. And after the age of 64, a much higher percentage of women than men have high blood pressure.
Race/Ethnicity
Studies show that the prevalence of high blood pressure in the non-Hispanic black population is significantly higher than that of non-Hispanic white and Mexican-American populations. Blacks also tend to develop high blood pressure earlier in life than whites, and have much higher average blood pressures.
While you can't control the risk factors listed above, there are some risk factors for high blood pressure that can be modified by healthy lifestyle changes.
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