New York, Sept 11 (ZEENEWS.COM) Adults who carry most of their excess weight around the middle may be at particular risk of high blood pressure, new research shows.

In a 10-year study of Chinese adults, researchers found that those whose waistlines expanded over the years showed a similar increase in blood pressure.

Moreover, even young men and women who were abdominally obese at the start of the study, or who became so over time, were more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure.

The findings appear in the American Journal of Hypertension.

Research has shown that "apple-shaped" people are at greater risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes than those whose extra pounds dwell largely on the hips and thighs. Studies have also suggested that general obesity raises the risk of high blood pressure, or hypertension.

But it hasn't been clear whether abdominal obesity, per se, can cause hypertension, Dr. Chen-Huan Chen, the study's senior author, told Reuters Health.

This study may be the first to "clearly show" that abdominal obesity predicts future hypertension, regardless of a person's current blood pressure or overall body weight, said Chen, a professor of medicine at National Yang-Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan.

It is possible, he noted, for a person to have a very large waistline but not weigh enough to be considered generally obese.