High Blood Pressure display with volunteers (L-R) Alex Austria, Gail Pierce and Andrea Edel . Other volunteers included Breanne Peters, Janet Gray, Estrellita Estrella-Holder, Rob Brown, Viktoriya Mozolevska, Elena Dibrov, Meagan Einarson and Grant Pierce.
Garden City Shopping Mall played host to an SBRC-sponsored high blood pressure awareness campaign on October 18 and 19, coordinated by Stephanie Caligiuri, a PhD student in the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences.
With the goal of educating the public on health issues regarding high blood pressure, Caligiuri assembled a team of paramedics, nurses, graduate students, technicians, research associates, and a dietitian to measure the blood pressure of 166 people while educating them and others on blood pressure management or prevention.
After their blood pressure was measured, people had access to a health care professional to be educated on diet, exercise, weight management, stress management, and medications. The public were also educated on clinical trials being carried out at St. Boniface Hospital looking at the ability of foods and natural health products to improve health.
The campaign will be run a few more times in the new year.
“The most rewarding moments of the weekend were when people had no idea they had high blood pressure, and we were able to provide them the awareness and the tools to become healthier” says Caligiuri.