This one factor is key to a lifelong healthy blood pressure level
New research shows maintaining a healthy weight throughout life – more so than four other health behaviors studied – is important to help keep blood pressure in check, according to research presented today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Hypertension, AHA Council on Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease, American Society of Hypertension Joint Scientific Sessions 2017 in San Francisco.
“Increasing blood pressure at younger ages is associated with earlier onset of heart disease and stroke, and U.S. high blood pressure treatment guidelines support maintaining healthy behaviors across the lifespan to limit rises in blood pressure as we age,” said John N. Booth III, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow of the AHA’s Strategically Focused Hypertension Research Network at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “We looked specifically at the long-term impact of maintaining healthy behaviors on changes in blood pressure between early and middle-age adulthood.”