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WHAT’S RACE GOT TO DO WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE? Hypertension rates vary greatly across racial groups. Black Americans, for example, are more likely to have high blood pressure than U.S.
adults of any other race. Nearly 60 percent of Black adults in the U.S. have hypertension, while just under half of white (47 percent), Asian (45 percent) and Hispanic (44 percent) adults
do. Getty Images As with families, people of the same race or ethnicity may have similar diets, lifestyles and personal histories. These may explain race-based differences in hypertension
risk more than genes do. Numerous studies have pointed to many other factors, besides genes, that may contribute to the high rates of hypertension among African Americans. Research suggests
that Black people may be more sensitive to salt than other people, meaning that a high-salt diet would have a greater impact on their blood pressure than it might on another person’s blood
pressure. This part, Kullo says, could be genetic. “One theory is that in Africa, the climate is such that you would sweat a lot, so the body had to develop mechanisms to preserve sodium,”
he says. “But then when, because of the unfortunate slave trade, people were brought to these temperate, colder climates, they still had this tendency to retain sodium and so that made them
a bit more predisposed to high blood pressure.” Black people in the U.S. also face many social, economic and environmental challenges that could contribute to high blood pressure. They may
be more likely to live in places where they can’t access healthy food or to live in neighborhoods or work hours that aren’t conducive to getting out and exercising. They may also have more
hurdles to accessing basic health care, including routine blood pressure checks. A 2020 study of 1,845 Black American adults in the journal _Hypertension_ linked experiences of
discrimination to increased risk for high blood pressure. Higher rates of hypertension in Black Americans, Kullo says, “may be, to a large degree, the environment, like stress, structural
racism, air pollution and other environmental factors, but there may be some genetic component.” DOES YOUR SEX AFFECT YOUR RISK? High blood pressure can look very different in men and women.
Overall, more men have it than women. About 52 percent of adult men have high blood pressure, while just under 43 percent of women do. Men tend to develop high blood pressure earlier than
women do, but women’s risk increases more steeply with age. By age 60, women catch up to men, and hypertension rates for the two sexes are about the same. A great deal of research suggests
that women are more sensitive to salt than men. That is, a high-sodium diet would be more likely to lead to hypertension in a woman than in a man. This is the case in women of all ages, but
menopause seems to make salt sensitivity worse and salt-sensitive high blood pressure even more common, suggesting that female sex hormones may keep salt sensitivity and blood pressure
somewhat under control.