Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill followed 14,000 kids from adolescence to adulthood. They found the number of young adults with /*high blood pressure*/ is close to one in five, or 19 percent.
That's much higher than previous estimates of about 4 percent.
Researchers believe the increase can be attributed largely to the obesity epidemic in America, combined with a diet high in sodium-laden processed foods and very little exercise. To make things worse, most of the 24 to 32 year olds in the study had no idea there was a problem.
