Exercise cuts young adults' hypertension risk

Research has shown, that physically active young adults are less likely to develop high blood pressure than their more sedentary peers.
Exercise has been demonstrated to reduce older adults' likelihood of developing high blood pressure, but there is little information on how physical activity affects the risk in younger adults, blacks, and women, Emily D. Parker of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and colleagues note in the American Journal of Public Health.

Parker and her team analyzed data on black and white 18- to 30-year-old men and women, who were followed for 15 years. The study showed that most physically active individuals were 17 percent less likely to develop hypertension than the least active ones, and the effect was the same for both men and women and blacks and whites.

Based on their results, Parker and her colleagues say "physical activity merits attention in the prevention of incident hypertension among young adults, particularly as they move into middle age."

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health