Exercise a main factor in high blood pressure risk

NBC NATIONAL NEWS — Exercise may be more important than family history when it comes to your risk for high blood pressure.

Doctors at the University of South Carolina followed a group of more than 6,000 adults for about four and a half years.

Those who had a parent with hypertension, but were also very physically fit lowered their risk for developing high blood pressure themselves by a third compared to couch potato peers with a similar family history.