在人的整个生命过程中，尽管高血压有时候并没有明显的症状，但是血压增高的主要原因是不断变化的，所以可以有针对性地来预防心血管疾病。目前的情况是，这种疾病影响着约三分之一的英国人和美国人的健康，可以导致心脏病和中风的发作，危及生命。所以降低血压对健康是非常重要的。据本周《PLoS 医学》的报道 ，由伦敦大学医学研究理事会Andrew Wills领导的一个研究小组，分析了一些来自英国的研究数据，这些研究反复地测量了不同时间不同个体的血压，发现在整个生命过程中，血压在四个阶段发生着变化：青春期血压迅速增加；青年时期缓慢的增加；中年时期（通常是40岁以后）快速增加；晚年血压缓慢升高。
作者分析了30372例（7~80岁）血压的检测数据，调查了普通群体和职业群体中这些数据的差异性。
相比于普通人群，职业群体的平均血压较低，中年血压快速增高期也出现的晚一些。更普遍的证据表明，这在一定程度上反映了与血压相关的因素的改变，如饮食和生活方式，这些因素可以随社会和经济环境而发生变化。 此外，尽管成年女性在青年时期的血压比男性要低，中年血压增高期（或许是因为绝经期的影响）相对晚一些，此时，男性和女性的血压水平差不多。 调查结果还显示，在人类整个生命阶段中，身体质量指数与血压之间有很明显的联系。
该文作者说：“虽然我们的研究还无法确定与年龄相关的血压增高的决定性因素，还需要做进一步的研究来了解哪些因素影响了血压的升高，以及在不同的生命阶段中哪些因素的影响最大。”（生物探索译）
生物探索推荐英文原文：
Blood pressure changes are age-related
The main causes of increases in blood pressure over a lifetime are modifiable and could be targeted to help prevent cardiovascular disease: although high blood pressure sometimes has no obvious symptoms, this condition, which affects about a third of the adult UK and US populations, can lead to life-threatening heart attacks and stroke, so reducing blood pressure is very important for health. As reported in this week's PLoS Medicine, a team of researchers, led by Andrew Wills from the Medical Research Council Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, used data from several UK studies in which blood pressure measurements in individuals were repeatedly taken over time and found that blood pressure changed at four phases throughout life: a rapid increase during adolescent growth; a gentler increase in early adulthood; a midlife acceleration (usually in the 40s); and finally for a period during late adulthood in which blood pressure increases slowly and then reverses.
The authors analysed the blood pressure measurements from a total of 30,372 individuals aged between 7 to 80 years and investigated the differences between the measurements in the studies done in the general population and in an occupational group.
Compared to the general population, the occupational group had lower average blood pressure, and midlife blood pressure acceleration appeared to begin later. Wider evidence suggests that this might in part reflect modifiable blood pressure-related factors such as diet and lifestyle that can vary with differences in social and economic circumstances. Furthermore, although at the beginning of adulthood women had lower blood pressure than men, an increased midlife acceleration (perhaps due to menopause-related effects on salt sensitivity) meant that later in life, men and women had similar average blood pressures. The findings also support the wide body of evidence that show a strong link between body mass index and blood pressure throughout life.
The authors say: "Whilst our study is unable to identify the key determinants of age-related increases in [blood pressure], further research should try to understand which factors affect this trajectory and when in the life course such factors exhibit most influence."
