Risk factors for hypertension include high sodium intake, low potassium intake, obesity, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diet.

“But risk factors for primary hypertension, according to the Mayo Clinic, include age. I'll comment on that in a moment. Race, there is some predilection of certain races to develop hypertension earlier than it does in Caucasians, specifically African-Americans develop hypertension more severely and at an earlier age than Caucasians. Family history is a risk factor for high blood pressure. Again, I I'm going to comment on that in a moment. Being overweight or obese, yeah, I would agree with that. Not being physically active, probably, though I think that, as I've spoken about in the past, if you correct your diet and it is evolutionarily appropriate, you will want to be physically active because you will feel good. Tobacco can do it, yes. Too much salt in your diet, I disagree with this one. I don't think salt is a root cause of hypertension, though excess salt in the diet can worsen hypertension once you have it, but I'll talk about sodium, why I don't think removing salt corrects the root cause in hypertension later in this podcast. Too little potassium in your diet, again, I doubt this is a root cause for many people, though in conditions that I will talk about later, specifically insulin resistance that are at the root of hypertension, there is a hormonal milieu that can lead to excess sodium and lower amounts of potassium in the diet.”