[Photo: Jeff Roberson/AP]
Barbershops are a traditional gathering place for African-American men ā a place to talk politics, sports and gossip. Now, some doctors in Los Angeles are hoping to make the barbershop a place for combating high blood pressure among black men.
Death rates from hypertension are three times higher in African-American men than white men of the same age, says Dr. Ronald Victor, the director of Cedars-Sinai Center for Hypertension in Los Angeles.
"Hypertension is one of the biggest reasons why the life expectancy of African-American men is only 69 years," Victor says. "That's a full decade less than white men in this country."
This week, he received an $8.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund a study testing whether barbershop intervention could significantly lessen hypertension in African-American men.
Shape-Up And Check-Up: LA Barbers To Start Testing Blood Pressure
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