Author in the Room: Diet and Lifestyle Risk Factors Associated with Incident Hypertension in Women

Summary: At an individual level, combining healthy lifestyle factors may substantially reduce the risk of developing hypertension; according to the findings of the study, women who followed 6 healthy factors had nearly an 80% reduction in risk. At a population level, a large fraction of all new cases of hypertension could hypothetically be prevented if all individuals in the population followed combinations of healthy lifestyle factors; according to the findings of the study, this fraction may is 78%. Given that hypertension is a leading cause of preventable death in the population, and given that the majority of hypertension may be preventable through lifestyle modification, efforts should be intensified to improve lifestyle as a means of improving public health.