Monday, June 23, 2014

Shape-Up And Check-Up: LA Barbers To Start Testing Blood Pressure : Code Switch : NPR

Shape-Up And Check-Up: LA Barbers To Start Testing Blood Pressure : Code Switch : NPR: Barbershops are a traditional gathering place for African-American men — a place to talk politics, sports and gossip. Now, some doctors in Los Angeles are hoping to make the barbershop a place for combating high blood pressure among black men.

Death rates from hypertension are three times higher in African-American men than white men of the same age, says Dr. Ronald Victor, the director of Cedars-Sinai Center for Hypertension in Los Angeles.

"Hypertension is one of the biggest reasons why the life expectancy of African-American men is only 69 years," Victor says. "That's a full decade less than white men in this country."