(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

If you thought you could live it up in your youth and only worry about high blood pressure as you got older, think again!  A recent study shows that an increasing number of young adults have high blood pressure:  as high as 1 in 5.

This fivefold increase in the incidence of high blood pressure in a younger, healthier population is the start of a trend of 'un-health' that we are about to see in our youth," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She was not involved in the study.

"As 30 percent of people are overweight or obese, there is a rise in other issues associated with that, such as diabetes and, now high blood pressure," Steinbaum added. "With high blood pressure happening at this younger age, the chances that we will see heart developing earlier is likely."

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