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I was shocked and surprised to discover in my mid-40s that I had high blood pressure. Of course, it’s always a shock to be diagnosed with any serious health condition, but for many people it may not come as such a surprise. These may be people with the classic “Type A” personality prone to hypertension or those with obvious risk factors such as obesity or heavy smoking.

But I was a laid-back, 100% Type B and I had always felt rather smug about my low blood pressure. My doctor even joked once that my test came back negative! And I had no obvious lifestyle problems. I was no athlete but I’ve always kept myself in good shape with a healthy diet, exercise and plenty of relaxation. People with high blood pressure and other “lifestyle conditions”, so I thought, only have themselves to blame, don’t they? How on earth could Mr. Mellow get high blood pressure?

Scientists think they may be onto an answer. It’s long been suspected that there are genetic factors making some people predisposed to hypertension. But researchers have now discovered that high blood pressure may be linked to low birth weight and a hormone called aldosterone.

Researchers in the United Kingdom studied elderly people with hypertension and found that those with the highest blood pressure were more likely to also have high levels of aldosterone and low birth weight. The connection was independent of lifestyle factors.

Aldosterone plays a role in blood pressure control and its regulation is set up early in life. The researchers have concluded that high blood pressure, aldosterone levels and low birth weight are all connected and it’s a link that has nothing to do with how we live.

Other scientists have identified genetic factors that can cause or contribute to high blood pressure. One of these is thought to be a genetic “fault” that prevents small blood vessels from relaxing. This would explain why hypertension tends to run in families and why its incidence varies among people of different races.

Of course these findings do not exclude lifestyle as a cause of or contributor to many cases of high blood pressure. The links are too well established to discount. We also know this because changes in lifestyle can so often result in lower blood pressure.

But the link to aldosterone and other genetic factors could explain why some people can develop hypertension with no apparent connection to lifestyle. And for these people effective treatment is much more complicated. While it’s still important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, in these cases it may have little effect on blood pressure.

In these days when virtually everything we do is dictated by “lifestyle preachers” it’s important to remember that health is not such a simple matter of cause and effect. With a prevailing attitude that can make people feel personally responsible for everything that afflicts them we need to acknowledge that much about health is still a mystery.

Lucky for me, I did finally find a solution to my high blood pressure. But I now know that I may have been predestined to get it, as are many others. I still believe in the importance of lifestyle changes whenever needed, but not to the point of assuming it’s behind every health problem.

Just one thing still bothers me a little: I wasn’t born underweight…

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