I hear all this talk about HIV and AIDS and to get checked up, however, there is one powerful little thing that people are missing and not really talking about. I went in to my client the other day in Atlanta. The client is a large worldwide brand and has a cafeteria on the 2nd floor. I’m standing in line after getting some lunch to pay for my lunch. I always speak to the lady who works as the cashier. She is an older African American woman who has the most beautiful spirit you can imagine. We’re talking briefly as I’m paying for my food and she tells me about a young African American man that passed away the day before.
I was shocked. He was 28, had a wife who works as an airline flight attendant for Delta and has two young boys. Apparently, he did not wake up from sleep and had a seizure. This reminded me of two things: the rapper Eyedea who passed just the other day in similar fashion and at the same age of 28 and it reminded me of myself going to the doctor for a checkup and finding out that I have high blood pressure due to the stress of dealing with my mother passing recently. I found out that salt and high sodium attributes to this as well as extreme stress, but the biggest thing that I found out is that extreme high blood pressure or hypertension is genetic and passed down in families.
Here’s the twist: many African Americans do NOT know our fathers and do NOT know our medical history because of this. Therefore, you can be 28 or 30 years old and never know that you have hypertension or high blood pressure because you don’t know your history. You can die of a stroke or heart attack and it appears random and sudden but it may have been caused by this hypertension that was left unchecked. When I went to the doctor, I had actually had my blood pressure check one week before but I wasn’t feeling right. There were days when I would wake up with a headache or wake up feeling like I had taken 5 shots of Patron Tequila the night before when I went to bed at 10 pm.
I went to the doctor because I know my body and know I wasn’t feeling like the usual person that I am. I couldn’t tell if it was due to depression or why I was having a headache periodically. And on top of this, I have had my blood pressure checked usually once every two years or so. I now know to check my blood pressure regularly and damn near weekly or monthly. If you don’t know you have high blood pressure, you can easily die in your sleep or at anytime due to this lack of knowledge of self.
Black men, I encourage you to make a doctor appointment today. Stay healthy by knowing your health status and don’t just think of diseases like HIV or AIDS. Many people can die over much less glamorous and high profile diseases. Get checked today. Make the call. Get a doctor that you are comfortable with.
