It’s true—what you do as a child and adolescent has a lot to do with how your body progresses in your adult years. We all know that, but I doubt that many of you realize how big of an impact childhood fitness has on your health in your later years.

A new article on WebMD that was published in Hypertension investigated studies that showed that young people who don’t exercise regularly run a higher chance of developing high blood pressure in their later years.

Researchers looked into 20 years of data and concluding that a “substantial” number of hypertension cases are linked to a lack of physical exercise and low aerobic fitness.

What’s the difference between physical exercise and aerobic fitness? Physical activity is a behavior, and aerobic fitness is a measure reflecting a combination of genetic potential, functional health of the body’s organs, and physical activity.

Data collected on over 4,500 people was investigated in a study called the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA).

The research links hypertension and fitness “by showing that fitness during young adulthood—a time when cardiovascular disease risk burden is typically low—is an important indicator of hypertension development in middle age,” study research Mercedes Carnethon stated.

Hypertension is due to a variety of factors including diet, health behaviors and genetics. These risk factors were studied over a span of 20 years in the study, making it one of the longest studies testing fitness’ association with high blood pressure development.

The research found that low fitness had a strong link with hypertension development. It was also found that high blood pressure could be prevented if the study’s participants moved to a higher fitness category.

So, I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time to jump on the exercise bandwagon…because high blood pressure isn’t something that anyone wants to look forward to.  It’s never too late to begin working out, but the sooner you start, the better sooner you will see the benefits on your health.