The University Place woman knows what’s coming.
She had a soda earlier in the day, and she’s pretty sure that the sodium content of the beverage elevated her blood pressure. She also knows that high blood pressure places her at risk for heart disease and stroke. She’s trying to keep her blood pressure under control.
“When I eat too much sodium, I know it raises it,” Brooks says. “My doctor gets mad at me.”
Smith gets a reading from her automatic digital sphygmomanometer (pronounced SFIG-mo-ma-nom-e-ter) – a device used to measure blood pressure. The reading is higher than it should be for optimum health.
Smith hands Brooks a booklet with information on how she can kee p her blood pressure under control.
“You know how to control it,” Smith tells Brooks. “You know what you’re supposed to do. I don’t want you to have a heart attack or stroke, because I care about you.”
LIVE SMART
Brooks isn’t at the doctor’s office – rather, she’s at the beauty shop. And Smith isn’t a doctor or nurse. She’s an owner of Divas Hair Studio, a Tacoma beauty salon.
Smith’s business, at the corner of South M and South 23rd streets in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, is part of the Power to Live Smart program, sponsored by the state Department of Health and the American Heart Association. The program trains beauticians and barbers who primarily serve black customers to measure blood pressure and educate their clients about the dangers of hypertension, the medical term for high blood pressure.
The Washington state program is based on one developed in Phoenix. Similar programs aimed at blacks using barber and beauty shops have operated in Atlanta and Cincinnati.
Power to Live Smart, launched last spring in Pierce and King counties, provides beauticians such as Smith with an automatic sphygmomanometer. All she has to do is place the cuff on a client, position the client and press a button. The machine spits out the blood pressure reading. The program also provides beauty and barbershops with informational booklets targeted to blacks that shop owners can give to their clients.
Since she joined the program in June, Smith has measured the blood pressure of more than a dozen clients. “If (the reading) is high, I suggest they go to the doctor,” Smith says.
ALARMING STATISTICS
Why target black people?
The answer is as simple as it is alarming. The American Heart Association says the prevalence of high blood pressure among black people in the United States is among the highest in the world. High blood pressure develops earlier in life in black people than it does in white people, according to health experts. And when it strikes, it is often more severe.
The condition affects an estimated 40 percent of black Americans, according to the heart association.
“Both in Washington and in the nation, African Americans have a higher rate of death due to heart disease and stroke, compared to other racial and ethnic groups,” says Miriam Patanian, the state Department of Health’s heart disease and stroke prevention program manager. “One of our priorities is to increase knowledge of the signs and symptoms of heart disease and stroke and also to emphasize the urgency of seeking prompt medical attention when those symptoms occur.”
And high blood pressure – known as the silent killer because it has no symptoms that sufferers can feel – is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
Several theories have been put forth, but researchers have not pinpointed the reason high blood pressure affects black Americans so severely.
One idea, discussed in medical circles in the 1980s and most recently on the “Oprah” television show, postulates that the condition is another lingering effect of slavery. The theory is that Africans who survived the grueling conditions on slave ships must have had a genetic tendency to retain sodium in order to avoid dehydration and death. (High sodium intake is known to raise blood pressure.)
But the “Oprah” discussion also prompted a lengthy opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times refuting the theory.
The writer, Osagie K. Obasogie, a bioethicist from the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, argued that stress from racial discrimination is likely a bigger contributor to high blood pressure – and stress is a proven factor in raising blood pressure.
ALL IN THE FAMILY HISTORY
Regardless of cause, Sphygmomanometer many black Americans know they have a family history of high blood pressure.
Jamia Thomas of Tacoma is one of them. “It runs in my family,” she says, noting that her mother died at age 56 from congestive heart failure. Her mother was on medication for high blood pressure. Her father is, too.
Her mother’s death at an early age prompted Thomas to change her lifestyle. She talked to doctors, read a lot and did research.
“We don’t eat fried food in our house,” she says. She’s switched to heart-healthy olive oil, and her new goal is to lose weight after her baby is born.
Thomas, who is eight months pregnant, has her blood pressure checked regularly. Smith measured it during a recent visit to Divas, while Thomas’ 4-year-old daughter, Samia, sat under the hair dryer. Thomas’ numbers were good.
“My goal is to pass on to my daughters and sons how to be healthy and take care of ourselves,” Thomas says. “We can’t control where we come from. We can control our destiny.”
BLOOD PRESSURE EXPLAINED
What is blood pressure?
Blood pressure is the force, or pressure, exerted by blood as it flows through the main arteries in response to pumping action from the heart. High blood pressure forces the heart to work harder and damages blood vessels.Sphygmomanometer
What can I do if I have high blood pressure?
• Reduce salt (sodium) intake, including processed foods and diet sodas with sodium.
• Exercise and lose weight.
• Stop smoking.
• Limit alcohol to no more than two drinks a day.
• Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables; eat fat-free or low-fat dairy products.
Participating Pierce County shops