Experts have found that a tendency toward high blood pressure often seems to run in families. That means that if your parents or other close blood relatives had high blood pressure, you're more likely to develop it. Men are more likely to develop high blood pressure than women. But after menopause women's risk of high blood pressure goes up. Men seem to develop high blood pressure most often between age 35 and 50.
Women are more likely to develop high blood pressure after menopause.
In general, the older a person gets, the greater the chance that he or she will develop high blood pressure. And eating too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure in some people. Because of this, many people diagnosed as hypertensive are put on sodium-restricted diets. The risk of developing it increases several times when women take oral contraceptives and also smoke cigarettes. When women who take oral contraceptives are also overweight, have had high blood pressure during pregnancy, have a family history of high blood pressure or have a condition such as mild kidney disease, the risk of high blood pressure also is increased.