Cause of Hypertension

The cause of hypertension is related to lifestyle, genetics and ethnicity, or pre-existing conditions.  Often, hypertension results from a combination of factors and often leads to an associated condition that further increases blood pressure in a cyclical manner.

Lifestyle as a cause of hypertension includes such things as salt intake, obesity, stress, alcohol intake, and a lack of exercise.  Of these, salt intake has received the most attention as sodium is linked to high blood pressure.  This is a reason why low sodium (low salt) diets are an important component of hypertension treatments.

Cause of Hypertension

There is good evidence that high blood pressure is a genetically inherited trait, although the precise genetic cause of hypertension is uncertain.   Studies have indicated that blood pressures of parents and their natural children are correlated, whereas those of parents and adopted children are not. The correlation of blood pressures in identical twins (monozygotic twins) is higher than in fraternal twins (dizygotic twins).  Most studies cannot pinpoint a single gene as a cause of hypertension which implies a multiple factors impacting genetic expression or that a number of genetic abnormalities contribute to high blood pressure. More than 50 genes have been examined as a cause of hypertension in association studies with hypertension, and the number is constantly growing.    Hypertension is one of the most common complex genetic disorders.

Ethnicity is also indicated as a cause of hypertension.  Many black communities, both in Western Africa and North America, have a high incidence of hypertension, whereas values tend to be lower on the Indian subcontinent. In certain parts of Africa and the South Pacific, average blood pressures are unusually low. Genetic inheritance is not the sole cause of this distribution of hypertension though it appears to play a role.

Secondary hypertension results from pre-existing conditions.  Usually, diseases of the kidney or adrenal glands are the cause of hypertension.  Both of these structures are intimately related to maintaining safe blood pressure levels.  Sometimes, treatment of the underlying condition will return the blood pressure values back to normal.