Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Nearly half of all Americans live with high blood pressure, a key contributor to diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and serious complications from COVID-19, according to the American Heart Association.
Popping a pill or two to control that hypertension is common, but is that enough? The answer is likely no for more than one-third of the adults in the United States currently taking blood pressure medications, according to a new study analyzing federal data on 13,000 adults.
Younger men from ages 20 to 49 were up to 70% more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension than women of the same age, the study found. However, risk shifted when women reached the age of 70, when women were 29% to 63% more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension than men, according to the study presented Monday at an AHA conference on hypertension.
Also called "resistant" hypertension, a person's blood pressure is considered uncontrolled when they still have high readings despite the concurrent use of three types of medications. The study defined high blood pressure using the AHA guidelines as anything above 130 systolic (top number) and over 80 diastolic (lower number).
"Blood pressure control remains a major public health challenge that impacts even those being treated for the disease," said study author Dr. Aayush Visaria, a postdoctoral research fellow at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in a statement.
Young men between the ages of 20 and 29 were 59% more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension than women of that age. Men between the ages of 30 and 39 were 70% more likely, and men ages 40 to 49 were 47% more likely to be uncontrolled.
"These results indicate that women 70 years and older and men less than 50 years with hypertension may have increased risk of uncontrolled hypertension and may benefit from more frequent blood pressure monitoring," Visaria said.
But there is something people with stubbornly high blood pressure can do -- and it's more than just pop another pill.
In what authors are calling the first study of its kind, people were able to reduce resistant high blood pressure with a combination of diet, exercise and reducing salt intake. The study published Monday in the AHA's journal Circulation.
"Though we usually think about recommending lifestyle changes like losing weight and getting more physical activity before starting medications, this study provides important reinforcement that adding lifestyle changes in conjunction with medications -- and when medications alone are not doing the job -- is an effective strategy," said Bethany Barone Gibbs, an associate professor in the department of health and human development at the University of Pittsburgh, in a statement. Gibbs was not involved in the study.
Over a four-month period, 90 adults with uncontrolled high blood pressure were given weekly dietary advice on how to follow the DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.
An award-winning eating plan, DASH has a simple premise: Eat more veggies, fruits and low-fat dairy foods; limit foods high in saturated fat; and limit your intake of sodium to 2,300 milligrams a day -- that's about 1 teaspoon of table salt.
The DASH meal plan includes four to six servings of vegetables and another four to six servings of fruit; three servings of whole-grain products; two to four servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy dairy products; and several servings each of lean meats and nuts, seeds and legumes each day.
In addition to the coaching and meal plan, the 90 people in the study engaged in intensive, supervised exercise training at a cardiac rehabilitation facility three times a week.
Another 50 people with resistant hypertension sat in on a single session with a health educator and went home with written guidelines on exercise, weight loss and nutritional goals to follow on their own.
The results? People in the guided group reduced their systolic blood pressure by at least 12 points, compared to a reduction of 7 points in the group who had no structured help.
"While some people can make lifestyle changes on their own, a structured program of supervised exercise and dietary modifications conducted by a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals in cardiac rehabilitation programs is likely more effective," said senior study author James Blumenthal, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, in a statement.
One important note: People did not stop taking their blood pressure medications during the study, but because of the reduction they achieved may be able to reduce medications after a discussion with their doctor.
"The most important point is that it is not too late to lower blood pressure by making healthy lifestyle choices," Blumenthal said. "Adopting a healthy lifestyle pays huge dividends, even for people whose blood pressure remains elevated despite being on three or more antihypertensive medications."
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.