People of Caucasian descent with high blood pressure who have two copies of certain gene versions may be more likely to have a type of high blood pressure that doesn’t respond well to the body’s normal salt-control system, and this could mean their condition is driven by how their genes affect salt and hormone balance.

People of Caucasian descent with high blood pressure who have two copies of certain gene versions tend to see their blood pressure rise more when they eat a lot of salt, and their body produces less of a hormone called renin when they eat little salt—this suggests their genes might make them more sensitive to how much salt they eat.

In people with high blood pressure who are white, certain gene variations seem to make their bodies produce less of a hormone called renin when they eat less salt—but these same gene changes don’t affect another hormone called aldosterone. This suggests the genes are tweaking renin on their own, not through aldosterone.

For people with high blood pressure who are white, having certain versions of the SGK1 gene might make their blood pressure more sensitive to salt—but only if they eat a lot of salt. If they eat very little salt, this gene doesn’t seem to affect their blood pressure at all.

People of Caucasian descent with a certain common gene version might see their blood pressure rise a little when they eat a lot of salt, but the change is so small that we can’t be sure it’s real yet — we’d need to study more people to find out for sure.

Some people’s genes make them more likely to get high blood pressure when they eat salty foods, while others don’t — it’s all in their DNA.