It all started when...

It all started when I went to a blood drive to donate blood... I had been healthy all my life: exercising regularly and eating a low fat diet. Apparently this was not enough. I was 42 at the time and I was about to learn what I didn't know (but needed to know) about eating right.

Donating blood was a regular thing for me. I always got pleasure out of the "light physical" that accompanied it:

• Pulse: always 55-65 for me (people joke that my heart barely pumps ;-)
• Temperature: typically around 96.8 (not 98.6) - consistent with the low pulse.
• Blood Pressure: typically around 100-110/70.

So, giving blood was a double positive: help others and validate my health.

This all changed in May 2010. It had been over a year since my last donation - I was busy with work and just kept "forgetting" to do my typical 2-4 times/year donation. So what happened? Happy to be in the light physical step, waiting for the nurse to say, "Wow, your readings are ultra-healthy!" But it did not happen this way. What did the nurse say, "blood pressure is 145/90".

WHAT! 145/90! I made her redo it 2 more times: 140/95, 145/95 .... I had HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE! What was I going to do. I was astonished.....