Hey, there. Thank you for your question. Hypertension is a major cause of many life-threatening conditions like heart attacks, stroke, vascular diseases and chronic kidney disease. It is good that you are making the initiative to know the risk factors that is causing you to be at a higher risk of developing hypertension. This way, you can attempt to lower your likelihood of suffering from this disease by making proactive lifestyle changes.

You are only diagnosed with hypertension when your blood pressure is 140/90 mmHg or more. Hypertension maybe primary (or also known as essential) or secondary. Primary hypertension usually occurs due to environmental or genetic causes. Secondary hypertension, however has a more specific causative factor (renal, vascular or endocrine causes). Primary hypertension is the most common hypertension affecting almost 90% of adults.

The risk factors that might be putting you at risk is your age. The older you get, the higher the chances of you developing high blood pressure. Women above the age of 65 is more at risk compared to men of the same age group. These are risk factors that you cannot change. Next comes the risk factors that you might be able to change :

Sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise

Unhealthy diet (high contents of sodium)

Overweight individuals or obesity

Alcohol

Sleep apnea

High cholesterol

Smoking and tobacco use

Stress

It is hard to make rash decisions in a day. The key to making lifestyle changes is to make sure you take baby steps. Instead of taking the lift to your office floor, why not take the stairs or even make your own meal at home. Control your salt intake if you are taking it in excess. Attempt to lose weight if you are obese or overweight.

Limit your alcohol intake to the daily recommended amount. You should also look into quitting smoking for good, if you are. Stress whether acute or chronic is not good for your health especially for your BP.