New research could lead to new treatments for hypertension in people with the condition using home care.
A report from Massachusetts General Hospital scientists revealed common variants in 28 regions of DNA which were associated with blood pressure in humans.
Most of the regions found to be linked to the conditions were previously unsuspected, according to the study published in journal Nature.
Corresponding author Christopher Newton-Cheh said: "Identifying these novel pathways expands our current understanding of the determinants of blood pressure and highlights potential targets for new drugs to treat and prevent cardiovascular complications."
In other news, research published in journal Hypertension revealed that high blood pressure could be due to low quality sleep.
Males with the lowest level of slow wave sleep were seen to be at an 80 per cent higher risk of experiencing high blood pressure.
People with the lowest levels of this stage of sleep were also seen to have poorer sleep quality in general, more sleep apnea and more awakenings during the night.
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