1. Aging - as people age, their arteries become stiffer and the resistance inside them increases, making it more difficult for the heart to pump the blood through. The result is primarily a rise in systolic blood pressure.
2. Being Overweight - the primary determinants of blood pressure are cardiac output or the amount of blood pumped out of the heart, and the resistance to the flow of that blood within the body's arteries. People who are obese have much greater cardiac output than those whose weight is normal, therefore, their blood pressure also tends to be higher. It follows then, that obese are at higher risk.
3. Stress - when you are under either mental or physical stress, your adrenal gland pumps out epinephrine. The effects of epinephrine is, it makes your heart pound and your legs go wobbly when you screech on your car brakes just in time to avoid an accident. Although you might think that the epinephrine released during one single panicky event of fear would cause no long-lasting effect, there is evidence that the epinephrine released may actually be taken up by nerve endings and then released periodically. It could be possible for multiple blood pressure surges. If you have enough large and small stresses over the course of your typical day, you might end up with sustained high blood pressure.
4. Salt Intake - sodium excess leads to an increase in blood volume. When you ate a salty meal, it makes you thirsty, but the extra fluid doesn't just stay in your stomach. It acts to expand your blood volume, which in turn increases blood pressure.
5. Kidney Disease - there is no doubt that the kidney is involved in the development of hypertension. People with kidney disease often develop high blood pressure. Given this relationship, it make sense that low birth weight has been associated with development of hypertension later in life.
6. Excess Alcohol - you might get surprise while reading this because there are many articles promoting alcohol as a way to reduce cardiac risk. Yes, it is true that small amounts of alcohol do appear to protect against the development of heart disease(probably through its impact on HDL, the protective cholesterol,and on platelets, our blood-clotting cells). Alcohol raises HDL and seems to impair the function of platelets, thereby decreasing clotting. A reduction in clotting would reduce heart attacks by preventing a clot from forming on a ruptured cholesterol plaque, but while alcohol, in small amounts, is probably protective, it appears that at a level greater than two drinks a day for men, it leads to high blood pressure.
7.Genetics - It is clear that the interplay of genetics and environmental factors (weight gain, excess alcohol intake, excess salt and stress) set into motion the cascade that ultimately results in hypertension.
