Health Matters: A Discussion on Blood Pressure

[00:00:00] You are now listening to Black Guy Therapy, a therapeutic podcast.

[00:00:14] Awesome!

[00:00:15] We're back.

[00:00:16] Yep, it's been a while.

[00:00:18] Welcome to Black Guy Therapy.

[00:00:28] Welcome, welcome, welcome.

[00:00:31] What's up, Dora?

[00:00:32] How are you today, sir?

[00:00:33] Good.

[00:00:34] It's not just a message here at school and you know, a lot of days coming in, we've

[00:00:43] got you know, friends that Thanksgiving and kind of the middle point between Thanksgiving

[00:00:48] and this one has to get nervous and give the other stuff all the time you're under

[00:00:53] Thanksgiving and trying to stress upon hearing the gift of giving to the kids.

[00:01:00] Yeah, most definitely.

[00:01:03] Most definitely.

[00:01:04] I guess for people who haven't heard us before, this is your first time listening to

[00:01:07] us.

[00:01:08] Welcome to Black Guy Therapy.

[00:01:09] We are at the therapeutic podcast.

[00:01:11] I say that all the time.

[00:01:12] What have we end up saying?

[00:01:13] We were last time.

[00:01:14] We're like the barber shop for therapy, right?

[00:01:17] The Black man's therapeutic barber shop.

[00:01:21] That's what we are.

[00:01:22] Just a couple of Black men just out here talking about issues that affect us, right?

[00:01:28] And this is the safe space for people to come and talk about those things.

[00:01:33] So that is why we are here.

[00:01:37] It is me Todd and I also have Dora with me as always.

[00:01:42] I know that you just told us what's going on in your life.

[00:01:45] Let me tell you what's going on in mine.

[00:01:47] I'm going to hold a lot.

[00:01:50] The military has a hold on me.

[00:01:52] I know I said that in the past episode, I am a member of our military and yeah, sometimes

[00:01:59] when they activate you, you got to do what they say when they say, right?

[00:02:04] So I've kind of been a victim of that but it's okay.

[00:02:08] It's been spoiling some of our episodes but hey, we're still here.

[00:02:14] We're still trying to do this work and we're still pushing out the message that we want.

[00:02:20] So that's a lot.

[00:02:23] It's a lot.

[00:02:24] Oh yeah.

[00:02:25] I can do it.

[00:02:26] Most people are kind of fearful of my brother Ty and I know he's been able to be away from

[00:02:34] the family, have to deal with the military and learn new things.

[00:02:39] He's a big man himself.

[00:02:41] I've gone through this and also serving his country so I'm going to probably on that

[00:02:48] and he's making the most kind of it.

[00:02:52] Well, I thank you.

[00:02:53] Appreciate it.

[00:02:54] It can't be hard.

[00:02:58] It's, you know, one encourage me to go and we'll hear for you from my brother.

[00:03:04] You know, I mean, it's a man, you know, it's sometimes how we get living a lonely, lonely

[00:03:09] place, you know, have to be someone who, you know, puts our needs last.

[00:03:14] And I know you want to, you don't be there and do all the things but I mean, you're still

[00:03:20] doing a good job.

[00:03:21] Well, I appreciate that because you know that just those little words right there can help

[00:03:28] push me a little bit further.

[00:03:30] Now let me tell you about my journey while I'm here.

[00:03:32] I am in a school status so I have been barely making it baby.

[00:03:38] I barely been making it but I'm still holding on.

[00:03:42] And I got a long way to go.

[00:03:45] So I appreciate the words of encouragement.

[00:03:49] I am going to continue to learn this new skill which apparently if I can learn this new

[00:03:55] skill, it pays a lot of money in the civilian world.

[00:04:00] Now I want to piece it at pass so if I can learn this skill, I'm going to be alright.

[00:04:05] But I'm going to be able to do it.

[00:04:07] And then my phone is getting to our conversation and usually I like to give my students

[00:04:11] and class a little motivational moment, like halfway through the class.

[00:04:15] You know, statistics are showing like you know school or what not.

[00:04:18] After about 15 minutes you lose concentration so we're trying to give them a little bit of

[00:04:23] a preview from talking about all those things but I just heard, although if you've heard

[00:04:28] this about Todd yourself but think Adam Mark's why they posted it and I'm listening

[00:04:32] to it and we'll sit home.

[00:04:33] They talk about you know, I care about some form of Tennessee ball, crazy boots for

[00:04:39] basketball, one of the best ball head coach currently.

[00:04:43] And she just talks about doing hard better.

[00:04:46] Right?

[00:04:47] Yeah.

[00:04:48] And like it's not going to get any easier.

[00:04:52] I know sometimes you wait to be things because it will be a better time for this or it

[00:04:57] will be a better time for that.

[00:04:58] Like for instance, you go on through this, it will be a better time.

[00:05:01] You think to get this degree or it could be another time but for something you want to

[00:05:05] do, there's something you can value than the earlier you do it the better because it's

[00:05:09] never going to be a better time.

[00:05:11] Especially when you have kids and young people or anything else in your life, you think

[00:05:16] if you don't, it's never going to be a better time because things will change, things

[00:05:19] can happen.

[00:05:20] And when you think things are going to be easy and adult, sometimes those expectations

[00:05:28] are things they need, even if they don't be down on yourself or lose hope.

[00:05:32] But instead of building that catalyst and building that partners in your soul that you know

[00:05:39] that you can do hard things and also doing hard better because things are going to be

[00:05:46] hard.

[00:05:47] You have to keep continuing, pushing and pushing until you build that up for the chicken

[00:05:50] to get up every morning and know that hey I'm going to give it my all today.

[00:05:54] They might get it best day but I'm going to give it all I got and tomorrow will be

[00:05:57] better for them.

[00:05:58] You can up that any day, like COVID said, these days you get better one percent on time.

[00:06:04] So they're kind of getting me hard today.

[00:06:05] I'm probably put that so note for everybody to kind of listen to that but man it's me the

[00:06:10] motivation to get through some things sometimes and sometimes they just come to me listening

[00:06:15] to it really get home because I was born there really good that for me.

[00:06:18] Yeah.

[00:06:19] And it's fun.

[00:06:20] It's kind of ironic that you say that because in our classroom, in the location that

[00:06:25] I'm at on the board, it says I can do hard things because what we are doing is hard.

[00:06:32] It is way outside of my wheelhouse but they wrote it on the board.

[00:06:36] I can do hard things and for me, I look at it and at first I thought it was kind of funny

[00:06:44] right?

[00:06:45] You're looking I can do hard things but then you start to think about it because when

[00:06:47] you're in the soup as they say right and you're having to navigate, it gets tough and

[00:06:54] you're like, okay yeah I can do hard things and I'm here right now doing this hard thing.

[00:06:59] I may not be doing it completely correct but I'm here in the soup and it's, you know,

[00:07:04] I've also just today I was talking to somebody and they were asking me how this was going.

[00:07:10] I was like it's really hard but I actually went back to college on them and I said, you

[00:07:16] know we used to hit this sign says I'll give them all for ten seater day and I was like

[00:07:20] I literally even though I may not know what I'm doing, I am literally giving them all

[00:07:25] not only for myself but for the state of Tennessee today.

[00:07:28] So it kind of hit home right there.

[00:07:33] See great minds think alike sometimes.

[00:07:35] Oh man, you can't go on a day until you start.

[00:07:39] Exactly.

[00:07:40] I get that first job because people get to tell some kind of other brand, you know they

[00:07:46] go look back at this and you know they run these new tools and once you get finished,

[00:07:50] you look back like man.

[00:07:51] I'm glad I took that leap and jump out there and try to run me.

[00:07:57] What are you doing Ty?

[00:08:01] What are you trying to do?

[00:08:03] Oh man so this is kind of cool.

[00:08:06] So I'm trying to finish the program, one of the military's programs, a hacker.

[00:08:16] They have, the military has hackers.

[00:08:18] My fact you probably seen so many recruiting videos for them right now because they are

[00:08:24] in great demand and they are given like I don't know 40, 50 thousand dollar bonuses for

[00:08:29] people to do this job in the military.

[00:08:32] It's kind of a shameless plug.

[00:08:33] I'm not like you know pushing anybody to go that way but they give you the training and

[00:08:39] you know if you can get that training and do that for a few years and then you get out

[00:08:44] in the civilian world, that's a gold mine of money that just didn't know.

[00:08:49] So yeah I am going through one of their just four better, you know a lack of better words

[00:08:59] than hacking training.

[00:09:02] What would be like a certified ethical hacker, that type of training?

[00:09:07] Oh, so that's the main thing I heard you talk about that before but that's just always

[00:09:13] like in a movie, you know, mission impossible.

[00:09:19] You see this person is sitting in the truck, he's like hacking into different systems

[00:09:24] and trying to figure out a best way to help fix the situation.

[00:09:31] And that's crazy.

[00:09:35] You know, Terence, you know always think like I'm like people like to hack stuff, they

[00:09:39] can really get in to it.

[00:09:44] You leave on the internet to figure out your passwords and get some information.

[00:09:49] Oh yeah.

[00:09:50] Oh yeah, dude look, I learned how to do that last week.

[00:09:57] That's the crazy part is like learn how to do that last week.

[00:10:01] So I literally could do that but yeah it's wild man and it's wild that the skills you're

[00:10:08] just like how did I learn how to do that and how am I doing that right now?

[00:10:13] It's kind of right.

[00:10:16] But yeah, learn that last week.

[00:10:17] Glad you brought that up.

[00:10:18] This is a new skill, new skill unlocked.

[00:10:21] New skill man, have you spray me up to this another kind of thing?

[00:10:25] Have you watched the new movie on Netflix?

[00:10:28] Leave the world behind.

[00:10:30] Negative but I am going to watch it probably tomorrow because tonight I am going to take

[00:10:39] myself and have a dinner for one at a night's restaurant that I want to gift cards so

[00:10:46] I am going to use it and exactly dinner for some time is the best dinner right.

[00:10:54] And I am going to watch my beloved Titans lose probably because you know we got the money

[00:10:59] night game but hey and shout out to all Titans fans out there.

[00:11:03] We lost Frank Watchek a few days ago.

[00:11:06] I think that was Saturday, one of the Titans greats man.

[00:11:10] I remember him as a kid.

[00:11:14] He's a big part of why the Titans went to the Super Bowl right without him.

[00:11:17] The music city miracle doesn't happen.

[00:11:20] We appreciate his service to the Titans into the city in Nashville and our condolences go

[00:11:27] out to him, go out to his family so I think they're in Chattanooga.

[00:11:32] So yeah we were praying for their family.

[00:11:35] I know they're going through a tough time but just know that as long as somebody is

[00:11:40] going to remember it, you're never really gone right.

[00:11:44] So there are and I'm one of those people millions of people who remember the music city miracle

[00:11:50] remember who did it and as long as you're on somebody's memory you're never really

[00:11:54] gone so.

[00:11:55] Right.

[00:11:56] Really gone.

[00:11:57] How do people ancestors alive right here?

[00:11:59] The memory telling us tours, you know video pictures and he definitely wanted to be great

[00:12:05] so we're listening to him on the radio and talking about that playing career in general

[00:12:09] and he's the end of the day.

[00:12:11] We talked about a lot of things for him, big in our lives so.

[00:12:19] So new episode we're here.

[00:12:23] I know we always try to bring something to the table and I know in our last episode we

[00:12:29] were talking about heart attacks, heart disease, things of that nature.

[00:12:36] So I thought well not I we thought it would actually be good to just have an episode dedicated

[00:12:44] to those issues.

[00:12:46] We actually have and I never call him doctor but we do have Dr. Draupar, he's a doctor of

[00:12:54] pharmacy right but this is something that's near and dear to him because for a long time

[00:13:00] prior to I think prior to your teaching.

[00:13:03] This is what you were doing.

[00:13:04] You were out in the streets literally in the barber shops.

[00:13:08] You are preaching to black men about hey you know we need to get this stuff under control

[00:13:14] because there are some crazy numbers out here when we're talking about heart disease and

[00:13:21] we're talking about like heart attacks and blood pressure more or less the blood pressure

[00:13:25] because the blood pressure makes all of this go right makes all the other bad things

[00:13:30] happen right?

[00:13:31] Right, right.

[00:13:32] It can drive a lot of chronic illness with patients and then also if you have other

[00:13:40] disease states, they can contribute to those becoming worse.

[00:13:46] So yeah we wanted to dive into that again give this little background by what Tyler was

[00:13:51] talking about.

[00:13:52] I worked with the kind of a barber shop initiative where I would go into barber shops

[00:13:57] and screen African-Americans for hypertension in our study in particular we were focused

[00:14:03] on African-American male and those males have hypertension and could treat them in a

[00:14:09] barber shop.

[00:14:10] Of course we know at times it's not very convenient to get to a healthcare facility right?

[00:14:17] You have a job, you have children, you have these different things that go on and you may

[00:14:22] not give them the navigate that process so we want to make it as convenient as possible

[00:14:27] and most black men, if they go to the barber shop a lot they'll go over two to three weeks

[00:14:33] and then get their head cut and with that being said that was a nice convenient place

[00:14:38] for us to come back and talk with those men about their blood pressure and also if they need

[00:14:45] it medication we could prescribe them medication if they need it some counseling on ways that

[00:14:52] they can control that at home and things like exercise, eating less sodium and a plug

[00:14:59] about sodium.

[00:15:00] Not generally the sodium if you put it in your food, it's generally the sodium that's

[00:15:06] already in there when you get it so packaged foods are generally the things that are driving

[00:15:11] a lot of high blood pressure especially in some African-American communities which are

[00:15:17] considered to be salt sensitive at times, it's been some studies that look at African-Americans

[00:15:21] over some other ethnicities and they consider it to be more salt sensitive than some others.

[00:15:28] Again I mentioned like exercise, if you don't get that anyone gets at least 30 minutes

[00:15:34] of the week definitely eat more things that have potassium because potassium kind of counteracts

[00:15:42] that sodium in your diet so it brings to you know, memories and bananas and leafy green

[00:15:50] vegetables, those types of things that definitely help control your blood pressure a little

[00:15:56] bit better.

[00:15:57] Of course losing weight is there but not living a certain period of lifestyle eating more

[00:16:04] more healthy foods is one thing that can help.

[00:16:09] Lifting weights is part of exercise but I think a lot of times it gets undercut because

[00:16:14] you're still looking into cardio training so lifting weights is one thing that's taken

[00:16:22] this down on quite a bit and then you know, stopping smoking is one if you do the amount

[00:16:30] of blood that I think you can play a part in your blood pressure at being high as well.

[00:16:37] And they have some of some studies if you are a you know, smoke marijuana at times, feel

[00:16:43] think about smoking guys.

[00:16:44] If you're the smoke is not going to be great for you but if you do consume, we first start

[00:16:50] using marijuana can increase your blood pressure but if you use it consistently not that

[00:16:56] advocating for anybody of you that are not just giving you the information that it generally

[00:17:00] doesn't have that big of an effect if you use it system but if you use it on a short time

[00:17:04] basis so you can have some blood pressure raising the fix to that point as well.

[00:17:12] But just keeping all those things in mind as we navigate the healthcare system and the

[00:17:18] food that we put in our bodies there's a lot of things you can do on our own to help

[00:17:23] control the blood pressure before you have to be on medication.

[00:17:27] Once you do get on medication, you want to have a trusted healthcare provider that

[00:17:31] you can have there to help you navigate there.

[00:17:38] And then you want to think about all the things that can happen and this is a pie cast

[00:17:43] talking to men are alive and one of those things that don't discuss a red type of

[00:17:50] structure right.

[00:17:51] A red type of structure can affect a lot of different things in the lives of people

[00:17:56] you know, make you feel like you're less than that you you know can't provide your

[00:18:02] weight with whatever they need if you do have a red type of structure and they can

[00:18:07] lead to depression right some of the longness that you can have there and that can all

[00:18:13] stand from having blood pressure because if you think about, you know, those vessels

[00:18:19] that are throughout your body and if they're you know constantly having that pressure

[00:18:23] upon them they can cause some dysphructions and you know they're your kidneys for one

[00:18:28] or two or three or four eyes can lead to blindness.

[00:18:32] Of course heart attacks strokes are things that happen quite you know, preferably when

[00:18:39] someone has a type of pressure because that that pressure on the walls can lead to cholesterol

[00:18:45] and plaque to be able to take more a little bit better and those plaques are what they

[00:18:50] need to that heart attack and stroke and all that pressure on the kidneys right can

[00:18:56] lead to chronic kidney disease and then once you get this whole clapper of chronic

[00:19:00] kidney disease or high blood pressure and throw in diabetes on that you have some resistance

[00:19:07] it can cascade into a early death for a lot of us and I know a lot of people like to

[00:19:14] say you can you got a die from something but I always like the count and say you don't

[00:19:18] want to suffer for everything to do.

[00:19:21] Let me let me stop you like what?

[00:19:26] Let's go back because that that's a lot that's a lot of information and there's a lot

[00:19:30] of a lot of things I'm trying to like okay what am I doing?

[00:19:32] I might even assault rich diet like it might even you know these prepackaged foods but

[00:19:38] let me go back to step one.

[00:19:40] What is a normal like blood pressure?

[00:19:43] I know blood pressure so blood pressure is amazing the millimeters of mercury so more

[00:19:50] to your top number which is your solid number there and your bottom number is going

[00:19:55] to be vast solid.

[00:19:56] You want it to be less than 120 over 80 right so that is going to be what we consider normal

[00:20:04] blood pressure less than 120 over 80 but we want it to be under that.

[00:20:09] Now if it's between that 120 mark and 130 and still less than 80 there it can be considered

[00:20:19] to be blood pressure so a lot of us going to be in an elevated mark that's when it's

[00:20:24] starting to increase and they have shown that you know we're doing above you know one

[00:20:31] 10 or so on one 10 you start having some mortality increase at that point so I would say

[00:20:43] that definitely anything you can do to control the blood pressure they get lower as you

[00:20:47] can normally take not naturally but the best things that you can do are possible for yourself

[00:20:54] because even though less than 120 over 80 is normal they did studies on like a lot of different

[00:21:02] different people and when they did that you know the lower blood pressure that you can

[00:21:07] have not naturally going to be best for you.

[00:21:11] So let me ask you this and I was in the hospital last week yes I was.

[00:21:17] I'm okay my knee was falling off but it still attached nothing broken we're good but they

[00:21:25] did my blood pressure and I remember looking and I think it was 117 over like 76 or something

[00:21:32] I'm sure that's a normal blood pressure but like my eye struggle with my cholesterol so

[00:21:43] does like if my cholesterol is high and my blood pressure is low I mean is there any

[00:21:48] correlation to any of that because I feel like if my blood if my cholesterol is high my blood

[00:21:54] pressure should be high or right but it looks at normal range like how does that work.

[00:22:01] No that you know not necessarily so think about our cholesterol the time your cholesterol

[00:22:07] is high and what that point falls is what I was talking about earlier it's going to be

[00:22:11] a black buildup and that can be increased if I have a high blood pressure could have put

[00:22:18] someone's stress on the wall so you're your reason things to crack on the leg there better

[00:22:26] when you have your blood pressure and blood pressure being under control and also I know

[00:22:32] the exercise and things of that nature that's a basic year you're good now generally

[00:22:41] people that you know what you're the LBO for most normal people to be less than 100

[00:22:46] higher of cardiovascular conditions or anything makes it so for a brother if you want

[00:22:53] to get lower but as long as I spoke about blood pressure blood pressure can contribute

[00:22:59] a lot of times to those other things that are going on not necessarily your cholesterol

[00:23:05] from all of your blood pressure you have blood it could it's a flex to say you had a lot of

[00:23:12] flat in your arteries already they could be a problem but what do you exercise as much as

[00:23:19] you do from the pushy feel you know want to get it lower if you can but I don't think

[00:23:26] one is going to necessarily contribute to the hunger so yeah it's kind of how it's like a

[00:23:34] little bit you know cholesterol is a thing that's on the day they talk to you about that at all

[00:23:43] so you know I have been I've always fluctuated with my cholesterol I've always been a person who

[00:23:53] um they wanted to put was it called a uh a statin yeah they want to put most dead and I was like

[00:23:59] no I don't really like medicine I am like anti medicine unless I'm absolutely miserable um

[00:24:06] and I've controlled it so I know like one time it was like two I don't know it was like two

[00:24:13] something and I think it's supposed to be like if it's over 170 you're like

[00:24:18] you want to get yeah and I was like 240 yeah and uh I'll you know my doc was my doc black woman

[00:24:27] awesome she's like hey look you know I think you need to go on this dead and I'm like I don't want

[00:24:34] to and then she's like okay well you're gonna have to change your diet so I made a conscious effort

[00:24:39] because I'm like okay I don't you know I know what high cholesterol can do right I know that

[00:24:44] it builds up in my arteries it could cause a heart attack essentially um so I said okay

[00:24:50] so I went vegan for like a year for like a year year and a half dropped all the way down yeah um

[00:24:58] so now like I'm back on a regular regular diet I think I'm I know for a fact that I'm getting

[00:25:04] all my fruits and vegetables in every day because I have um freeze dried pre-packaged uh vegetables

[00:25:13] fruits and vegetables that I that I take to meet their requirement um so it's been

[00:25:19] I think it's been normal it's been a little high but not like over the top right I think I'll

[00:25:24] probably be in close right to that like 171 80 number but like I don't go over it uh but even then

[00:25:30] like my doc is I hate we might want to just you need to just focus on eating you know eat some fish

[00:25:36] eat um you know things written what the the omegas yeah and five or two you need a lot of

[00:25:43] one of the things to try to control if you can take like a proper supplement today can kind

[00:25:49] of help you know push that both tracks do you system um take what they probably say you have

[00:25:56] a familial hyperpollister all in there is oftentimes the fibroid uh every year was greater than

[00:26:03] 180 mm-hmm found out what they said so it's a genetic thing so it's part of

[00:26:09] these anybody else in your family have hyperpollister of yes my father so yes usually a genetic

[00:26:18] thing that happens especially when it's you know the level which you're mentioning there and

[00:26:25] again you have to do what you have to do you know like you you you look at it like I don't like

[00:26:30] medication right but you're giving you a different route and you took that right you said oh

[00:26:36] you're telling me I have to do this so not we'll but I think at times sometimes patients will be

[00:26:42] I don't like medicine and especially man because we can have that you know my cheese mold that uh

[00:26:48] you know I can't tell me what what to do yeah yeah okay well I can give you an alternative but

[00:26:53] it's going to be harder I choose your heart right again I said over when you could even be on

[00:26:58] a medication which you don't want to do which is a hard thing have to deal with it or you could

[00:27:02] go begin and change it back so you have more you know green leafy vegetables and you get more

[00:27:08] omega free fatty acids which you can get from the sources of fish sure you can get from nuts

[00:27:13] you think about longness that you can get in over really high and those omega green fatty acids

[00:27:18] and especially like this like salmon you know all those things and uh choose your heart right and

[00:27:25] chose to change your diet in your situation because again life isn't isn't fair for everyone

[00:27:32] you know right like you have to make choices when you in this in this world not everything's

[00:27:39] going to come easy um but you have to make a choice you can't just do nothing because that can

[00:27:45] lead to problems of its own and I want to you know all the listeners who I've listened this is

[00:27:50] why we're here to discuss these things going on our lives maybe it can provide you with some

[00:27:55] you know insights and you know it's for you to make a change it's for you to do something

[00:28:01] to improve your health for you family your friends because I you know it's my guy right here

[00:28:06] I want him to be around so I can see how kids go up together so we can you know be around each other

[00:28:12] camaraderie friendship you mean so much to me when you know especially when we get the hand out

[00:28:19] and talking and just be together yeah yeah it and it's and I think even even in this short conversation

[00:28:29] something you said earlier it's like look I'm in these barbershops and I'm talking to these people

[00:28:33] and they don't want to go to these doctors but they rather see me like I went to the doctor

[00:28:38] but I was into now while I was there right I was like nah I'm not doing I'm you want me to take

[00:28:43] this medicine nah I'm straight right the typical yeah I think that's a typical male thing but

[00:28:50] probably more prevalent in the black community because we already leery of doctors we all know

[00:28:56] the Tuskegee experiment right and it's kind of scarred us and amongst other experiments

[00:29:02] them to our people. I'm not much other experiments but you know some probably still don't know

[00:29:07] to this day yeah the things that were that were done think about my funeral acts you know a lot

[00:29:13] people start to know about that you know how they took some of her stem cells and they still

[00:29:17] growing to this day to help test medications to test all these drugs on her cells and her family

[00:29:25] wasn't getting any other money at all for this long period of time I think just now that they may

[00:29:31] start getting some of that I haven't picked it up they but I know it was thought that they would be

[00:29:35] able to get some of those yeah I think they are I think they're gonna get paid now yeah they're

[00:29:39] going to get now you know that was years and years and years and years ago yeah and I just

[00:29:48] spoke about that at black male perspective from here so they see the girl to the healthcare system

[00:29:55] you know doesn't this work but things are things that we witness day right um know that

[00:30:02] we think about females and talk about the birth um birth rates and how so many of them have passed

[00:30:08] away when they they're in childbirth and um for black males it's just like thinking about going to

[00:30:14] the hospital they know a friend who hasn't went to the hospital nothing's wrong with them they go

[00:30:19] to the hospital they may not come out yeah and they may be anecdotal evidence to someone but you

[00:30:24] can't tell me that's not that real if my friend goes to the hospital for the first time in 20 years

[00:30:30] and he doesn't come home I'm just I'm just not going to go right so people like to me you like I'm just

[00:30:39] not yeah I mean that happened to my uncle man like I or my fact uh my freshman year when we were

[00:30:46] when we were at Tennessee um my uncle went to the hospital he drove himself to the hospital because

[00:30:52] he was feeling bad checked himself into the hospital and didn't check out he died a few days later

[00:30:58] um so like I there it is right there right and and generally for most of us it's like

[00:31:05] preventable things which is to say but that's why the the health care system has to be

[00:31:13] equitable in the treatment of patients of of color because for so long we couldn't even at times

[00:31:20] we couldn't go to a certain hospital right if you go into the hospital like no you can't come here

[00:31:25] you have to go through a different one and that's been passed down for you know generations

[00:31:29] and as we talked about uh one of our previous weeks with with one of our physicians they think

[00:31:35] some physicians still think I stand thicker thicker than others right that we we since pain a lot

[00:31:42] we can handle pain a lot more than others and that just all these things that aren't they can be

[00:31:50] advice that maybe intentional maybe not most of the time it's not intentional they just don't know

[00:31:56] how to relate to a patient in the African-American home uh I remember this one story from my my sister

[00:32:03] she was a nurse and they had this mother she's a mother baby nurse and the lady was just patting

[00:32:10] her head really hard like this right you know what you know what's going on right there yeah

[00:32:15] I know that's okay yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's it but the nurse saw her doing that when we're

[00:32:24] saying that she was somehow going crazy and she couldn't handle her baby because she was slapping

[00:32:30] herself in her head because she thought the babies were gonna be harmed because this lady's

[00:32:34] been slapping herself in her head and she may slap the baby in all right so just like that's one

[00:32:41] thing it did happen but just like little things culturally they can happen um to you why

[00:32:46] get a health care system for the poor you wouldn't necessarily trust them the next time you know

[00:32:53] if you go yeah yeah that's it it's interesting I I knew we were gonna have this talk today and

[00:33:03] in these numbers are old I found old numbers I guess they did some study um I got approximately

[00:33:10] five years ago now but um I'm looking at the study and they're talking about the people black people

[00:33:19] over the age of 18 who have high blood pressure now in these numbers are old I'd love to see the

[00:33:27] updated numbers um but I don't think that they've done another study since this one

[00:33:34] and just in the black community when we're talking about black men just just black men

[00:33:42] over the age of 18 who have high blood pressure it was 57.2%

[00:33:52] like that blows my mind so we're saying almost 60% of black men in America because

[00:34:01] that I mean that's where we are this is where these numbers are coming from 60% almost 60%

[00:34:08] of black men in America have high blood pressure or hypertension high blood pressure right

[00:34:18] that's crazy to me that's more than than that means every other person I meet has

[00:34:25] high blood pressure every other black person that I meet has high blood pressure

[00:34:32] oh you know wow like that's just and these are old numbers right now like I said I don't think

[00:34:37] they've done a study since this this last study but when we're just talking about men

[00:34:44] but black men 57.2% now when you go to black women

[00:34:51] it's just as bad 56.7% of black women have high blood pressure high

[00:35:03] potential high blood pressure and I'm going to keep saying this over these numbers are

[00:35:08] oh from an old study that I looked at that's approximately five years old from the CDC but

[00:35:15] you got 57% men and 56% women so again the numbers are the same right every other every other black

[00:35:26] woman you meet has high blood pressure that's a really high number and when I was out in the

[00:35:38] community you see that playing silk out when almost every other person I would

[00:35:46] you can check their blood pressure a lot of patients would have high blood pressure and if it was

[00:35:50] controlled use the Lyron medication for it right so what was the number if you had to guess

[00:35:55] I know you're in a bar of shot let's say let's say you saw how many people do you see average like

[00:36:01] in a shot? I was doing what I was doing at first went to a south I was probably good you know

[00:36:08] the 20 30 to 40 people okay out of those 30 to 40 how many would you can you remember having

[00:36:16] high blood pressure in a day it was it was probably you know 18 to 20 you know like you know kind

[00:36:22] of what the statistics were saying was say 40 to 50% other patients that were in there so it's

[00:36:29] study is right I mean yes and even with that my people would say I'm good I know I got

[00:36:36] have no questions you know right some people wouldn't even come because they were not your

[00:36:40] medication like I know that's your my back to turn off time I'll still try to get them to come

[00:36:45] over and take their blood pressure but it was definitely one of those things that kind of

[00:36:53] definitely struck me and another thing to struck me too with this now you know obesity is

[00:36:58] one thing it can't really eat their high blood pressure but that was not the only

[00:37:05] but the sign of high blood pressure they mean what we're seeing is that this

[00:37:10] becomes so long with overweight or you know looking at they was skinny or you know normal

[00:37:16] signless they had no bearing on their blood pressure and that was one of my misconceptions that

[00:37:21] you know we always talk about obesity and how blood pressure and how they correlate with each other

[00:37:26] but when I was in the shop to get in that was not the necessary to correlation you know someone

[00:37:30] could be bigger head blood pressure to be fine someone would be smaller and every blood pressure

[00:37:34] would be really high so it was not necessarily a one for one like just because I'm big my blood

[00:37:39] pressure will get high that's just not how it works and people sometimes that at missing

[00:37:43] concepts and I mean exactly for a long period of time that you know just to present you

[00:37:48] know the overweight or blood pressure it has for all of us who are you know not overweight at a time

[00:37:54] you know being in line is another control your blood pressure could still be high so don't

[00:37:59] just think because you are you know you know just being normal weight pressure blood pressure

[00:38:05] could be how like look my my friend Tati he usually he eats pretty healthy I've been around

[00:38:10] he's healthy runs you know a lot my man Tati is going to get down when it comes to running

[00:38:16] the mile what's your time for running the mile man I know you can you get down right now like right now

[00:38:23] right now with because my knee is broken basically I'm gonna go on to do those man

[00:38:31] on theory days I look I said a record at the orange theory over in Brentwood I ran the

[00:38:37] mile and like it was like 430 something but but then yeah I love run I ran my whole life I

[00:38:46] loved to run I mean not right now I don't love to run but but yeah like I'm running I'm lean

[00:38:53] I'm a tall lean guy like I'm only I'm 165 pounds right so can we so you would not fit the

[00:39:01] stereotype someone would think would have high cholesterol and unless you go in yeah just like

[00:39:09] blood pressure you we will not know what thing to call a high blood pressure is a silent killer

[00:39:15] because you do not know that you have high blood pressure less it's like through the roof

[00:39:20] and at least like headaches and baby that makes it but most of the time your blood pressure

[00:39:26] will be really high and you will not even know which is crazy and scary at the same time

[00:39:37] yeah I would have never thought that I had or and I didn't have high blood pressure

[00:39:41] you know let me let me go back because I do when when I had when I when I told me I had high cholesterol

[00:39:48] I do remember my blood pressure being a little bit elevated I think it was like one in the

[00:39:54] 120 some like somewhere in the 120's I remember that now I also was the police right so I

[00:40:04] I was already tense all the time I was I was sleeping irregularly you know I go to work

[00:40:12] I may go to work on Monday and not come home until Wednesday just because I'd be out all day all night

[00:40:20] um doing whatever so and maybe that had a role in it too right but even even then

[00:40:29] uh at that time what I'm I was you know 26 27 year old man work out every day or most days right

[00:40:38] obviously my schedule was a little regular but I still made time to work out and I still had

[00:40:43] high blood pressure and on top of that or elevated blood pressure and I say hi but elevated

[00:40:49] blood pressure because I was over that that 120 mark one to I think it was like 126 um and I had

[00:40:57] high cholesterol so it's just weird and you never know unless you go see somebody I mean I did

[00:41:05] with that myself too when we're talking about high blood pressure it runs best with runs

[00:41:09] in my family so I have to you know try to stay where I exercise before eight things of that nature

[00:41:16] I went to the doctor once and it was you know how I went in the 140s and I was oh man I didn't even

[00:41:21] you know I'm gonna ask my whole life working out you know pretty readily you know at least

[00:41:26] you know four days a week you know that four-hour period it was so pretty you know regular occurrence

[00:41:31] and um playing basketball and things that nature and I'm you know looked up and I'm like whoa

[00:41:38] man you know it's my my right here so I had to make those lifestyle changes and let me tell you

[00:41:42] when you want to make them they can work you know I would run like a mile sometimes but then

[00:41:48] I started trying to make sure I got at least 30 minutes and when I was doing you know cardio

[00:41:53] exercise again looking at weights and watching the types of foods that I was you know consuming

[00:41:58] and making sure it was less packets foods and more like whole natural foods that I could

[00:42:04] you know put in my body and then you know definitely for myself I'm just trying to lose a little bit

[00:42:09] a little weight as well this is gonna make it better all my knees and things when I was running because

[00:42:15] you know it got like go back to that mental health part I mean when I got done playing football man

[00:42:20] it was kind of hard transition for myself you know just like you know playing sports since I was

[00:42:26] four or five years old always doing something wanting to make it sort of pinnacle of

[00:42:31] of athletic you know go to that professional level and then having that three part of my

[00:42:37] identity and having that kind of stripped away and then I had it that was that just you know I

[00:42:44] didn't do anything for a while you know we'll start working a little bit and just didn't exercise

[00:42:49] started you know kept eating the same way you know yeah getting that McDonald's dollar menu you know

[00:42:56] mega one headed dollar menu yeah you know double chees burgers all the time and man this is

[00:43:03] really my health without even not even thinking about it and you know took a couple months off

[00:43:08] and the game weight just you know just feeling like I had other things to do but still just

[00:43:14] feeling in my soul like man sports were right my passion and you know one of the reasons that

[00:43:20] the thing I look forward to the most when I'll compete like if it was the vomit school I can't

[00:43:24] wait till after I get done to go to practice you know practice so my favorite thing until I got

[00:43:29] the college in practice yeah a little different yeah yeah no but still in high school I like going

[00:43:35] to practice I got the college man it was hey they changed my mind but I still a little plain but you

[00:43:40] know I still have a passion for a game is still a dude but not having that take away

[00:43:45] completely plain for something and you know playing against the best definitely took a toll on my

[00:43:53] heart and my mental health at that point and just you know getting there and we help people who

[00:44:00] definitely have worse for a hundred million and if there's something that you know you still

[00:44:08] think about sitting to the day and trying to make sure you can help people as much as you plan

[00:44:13] on with that you know they pivot into a different career but also I hope people think about pivoting

[00:44:19] into better health as well because if you don't pivot from athletic it's like fitness to every day

[00:44:29] health a lot of us don't know how to deal deal with it yeah and I see a lot of us that you know

[00:44:37] the loser so your fitness really quickly and go down and help me man it's funny you talk about

[00:44:46] that I remember and it's you know as a kid you listen to you you listen to especially man we

[00:44:52] listen to our fathers and yeah a lot of times it goes goes in one ear and out the other but you catch

[00:44:58] some things in between so I remember I won't forget it and it has stuck with me since but I was

[00:45:06] one day I was talking to my dad and we were talking about life after sports and

[00:45:13] and our I won't forget he said you know one of two things happens when you when you're done playing

[00:45:23] you know you're your sport in college or done playing professionally he said one of two things happens

[00:45:29] one you either were really big and you get really skinny or two you were really big and get bigger

[00:45:40] he said there's no in between he said it just how it goes and we think about it I see even some

[00:45:50] of our friends and I'm like do you used to be like swole and now you just swole you know I mean

[00:45:57] and then like me I mean I was 200 pounds I think I think I was 202 pounds at the heaviest and

[00:46:03] now I'm 165 right so it's like it's crazy how it works and in a lot of that like you say a lot

[00:46:10] of that is like mental health because you're like I'm not playing anymore what I'll do you might go

[00:46:15] into that dark depression and your dark depression maybe eating and you don't even realize it

[00:46:21] and you screw yourself and now you gotta now you're like dang I gotta lose all this way to gain

[00:46:26] so so much harder to lose it than it is to put it on it's like a wish at times you're eating through

[00:46:37] it it would tear you how many miles I have to run to get this up to put it in the actual

[00:46:44] perspective and go how hard it is to run a mile so this is how many miles I have to run if

[00:46:50] I wanted to lose as many calories like put it in that type of frame my frame of this

[00:46:58] calories are hard to get off yeah there you go this idea for apps are yeah there we go it's called

[00:47:04] the mile you know what I mean like you put all these foods into miles four steps so whatever you

[00:47:12] do we can just win the laps you know yeah whatever you need to do we're gonna make it work

[00:47:21] yeah it's it's just wild to think about and I know like I said it's been it's been a

[00:47:27] little while since all that episode obviously that wasn't by choice I'm my schedule is weird

[00:47:34] but I know in that last episode and it's been on my mind ever since we say we were gonna have

[00:47:40] this conversation and leave it or not y'all derives will text me like hey man can we can we get it in

[00:47:47] as much as I wanted to like there were some days I just I couldn't but I'm so glad that

[00:47:53] that we got this in now right where I'm gonna talk about this now because what you said towards

[00:48:01] the beginning of this episode of all the things that goes along with how blood pressure anybody

[00:48:08] could listen to this and take some of those tools out into the world and battle themself just a

[00:48:13] little bit maybe not but just a little bit

[00:48:18] all we have to do each and every day try to get walkers in but again you have to

[00:48:24] to start before you can think yeah right when it ties when we don't have that motivation

[00:48:32] we have to depend on consistency and he's a watchman he has a great saying that kind of puts

[00:48:39] all this together and I like showing that to my students again another motivational kind of moment

[00:48:44] there but you can't start again to you you can't finish if you don't start

[00:48:51] yeah and I'm trying to finish it all I've started over here on this year I have tried to finish

[00:48:58] whether I'm finishing on my own accord or whether they finished for me do you say you're going home

[00:49:03] because you've bailed out the course but hey I am trying to finish where I'm at.

[00:49:08] I got a great job reached after time I was just like you want to do it

[00:49:11] it can't do it in a it's like bro I got a test in the morning

[00:49:14] so they're told I'm supposed to test they're gonna send me home

[00:49:18] so I'm unfortunately I said hey that's life right we just we do better and we got

[00:49:25] what we have to do and we understand each other and there's like hey we got what we have to do

[00:49:30] exactly and I made I made a 76 on that test you know what the you know what you had to make to pass right

[00:49:41] 75 okay I made it hey just as good as everybody else a lc don't matter you get it

[00:49:52] I made it through and I was like woo but I made it I'm still here one more week

[00:49:57] I'll win one more week that's that's your prize you win one more week here until the next test

[00:50:04] song as funny well

[00:50:11] it's um oh goodness music you know the music so loud today I don't know why but

[00:50:21] it's okay well I can't hear a lot of my side so I don't think you can laugh

[00:50:26] well it's loud on my side I'm at least I'm here but I guess you can hear it right

[00:50:32] everybody oh if you can hear everybody else can hear that's that's all that matters when

[00:50:37] you hear the music the outro music you know what's going on right like y'all know it's almost been

[00:50:42] an hour here and we have to go so what we always do we always leave the

[00:50:51] people with some words right and since these episodes come out on one day usually

[00:50:57] these are words that can help you through the week and apparently we're having technical issues

[00:51:03] with the music but whatever we'll go without it draw what do you gotta say to the people

[00:51:09] I mean just want to just kind of put a button on the top of that um about the blood pressure

[00:51:16] you don't know if you have a blood pressure or even have to list the role unless you go get that

[00:51:23] checked out or have blood sugar so it's imperative that you know your numbers and that you

[00:51:30] you know find you a healthcare provider if you trust and just so you can know for yourself

[00:51:37] do you take care of yourself for you your loved ones and that the yellow life

[00:51:46] it's all good but we don't want to suffer we want to think about not just life

[00:51:53] but your quality of life right I like it yeah I um one day I know I always start with something

[00:52:03] lighthearted one day this software is gonna work I promise a promise we're gonna get through

[00:52:09] one episode fully and we don't have any hiccups with software that that that day is not today but

[00:52:14] one day we will um anyway I just want to leave the people with this it is a tough time right now

[00:52:23] we are going into the holidays we are in the holiday season we're not going into the holidays

[00:52:26] we are in the holiday season I want to say this make sure that you are reaching out to your friends

[00:52:35] and family who may or may not you know have other people around them one thing that we know happens

[00:52:44] during this season is that people go into depression um dark depression and what I would absolutely

[00:52:53] hate is for anybody me you anybody else who's listed shown included or anybody in the world to lose

[00:53:01] I loved one um or just a friend because they didn't check on them so make sure that especially during

[00:53:09] this time you need to be doing it all the time but especially during this time that you're checking

[00:53:13] on your friends and family funny quick story one of my friends he was on my mind I was like man I

[00:53:20] haven't talked to this dude in about eight months and literally the next day he texted me and said hey

[00:53:27] man you are on my mind just wanted to reach out and say hey and it was crazy because I was like dude

[00:53:34] I literally I literally was thinking about you yesterday and was going to reach out to you today so

[00:53:39] if you have that feeling where you want to reach out to somebody do it don't wait don't delay

[00:53:44] that's the universe talking to you that that person may just need to hear from you and you may be

[00:53:49] saving them so are they may be saving you one of those so that's that's what I'm going to leave

[00:53:56] y'all with usually we have outro music but obviously software issues I told you one day we're

[00:54:03] gonna have it where we don't have these issues but that today's not just not today and that's okay

[00:54:08] but if there's nothing else that you have to say to road

[00:54:13] just one more thing if you guys find yourself you know struggle with have more pressure

[00:54:19] or twist of all or have lots of anything you know feel free to reach out you know

[00:54:25] to us to where we get I have limited bandwidth but I would love to help some of you guys

[00:54:30] kind of look at that and talk through it so if you're struggling with that first like that

[00:54:35] no system I have something to kind of help you get us over that that problem

[00:54:42] feeling like we are human you know but when I sit above it all then you know we want to help

[00:54:47] help you manage it yeah no doubt and y'all can reach out to us it's bgtcast at gmail.com

[00:54:55] again that is bgtcast cast at gmail.com it's also in the show notes like so you can pull it up

[00:55:04] there if you just need to reach out to us or if you go to the website you can reach out with a

[00:55:08] media inquiry and you can just drop your stuff there so go that email so there are ways there are

[00:55:12] multiple ways to reach out to us and uh dry can get that stuff and he can get back with you

[00:55:18] he'll help you if he can't so with that if there's nothing and that's why I ask that question

[00:55:25] is there anything else that needs to be said because sometimes we forget things so with that if

[00:55:31] there's nothing else to be said we're gonna be out so we out y'all