Again, Athletic Heart SF is delighted to have participated in a screening event for school kids age 12-18 that took place on January 26, 2016, at Sacred Heart High School in Menlo Park.  The event was organized by Via Heart Project, and the kids also received instructions in basic CPR.

A total of 535 kids were screened, a 3 were found to have conditions that put them at risk of serious cardiac complications.  Others were also found to have some structural anomalies of the heart or aorta that would need further follow-up.

If you think your school district could benefit from a screening and would like to get involved, I encourage you to contact the non-profit Via Heart Project organization.  Also, don’t forget that the availability of AED is essential to increase survival rates in case of cardiac arrest.  If your local school is not properly equipped, Via Heart also helps with that.

If you have a high blood pressure concern, or you are on treatment for hypertension, you may wish to watch this video.  The transcripts are below, but let me also point you to this medical journal article, called On Redefining Hypertension.   I wrote it with my colleague Dr. Herbert Fred and you may find it informative.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello everyone

Today I’d like to talk about high blood pressure management, because I think this is one area where there is a lot of confusion, even among doctors.  Just in the last couple of years, there have been studies and recommendations that conflict with each other about what constitutes high blood pressure, how to treat it, and so forth.

I will talk briefly about what high blood pressure is, why there is confusion about it, and what I think is the proper way to deal with people who have blood pressure concerns.Read more