Blood (Pressure) Talk Comes To Barber’s Chair

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Katherine Tucker screens Dexter Jones for high blood pressure at his eponymous Unisex Barbershop.

Cardiologists and healthcare workers sat in line at Dexter’s — not to get their hair cut, but to work their way into the barbershop talk of the day by speaking truth to a silent killer.”

That not just quiet — but silent” — assassin is high blood pressure.

Dr. Erica Spatz of Yale New Haven Health’s Heart and Vascular Center told shop patrons and reporters that the killer is a symptomless medical condition that may ultimately lead to brain and kidney damage, often causing stroke and heart attacks. The visiting crew shared that information while at the 716 Dixwell Ave. shop (including during a conversation on the Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.).

Twenty six percent of adults in New Haven County experience hypertension. That led Yale New Haven Health to launch a blood pressure monitoring initiative at trusted community spots all around New Haven. Like Dexter’s.

We’re starting small, with hopes to grow,” Spatz said. Just as Dexter Jones’ clientele will continue to return for regular trims as their hair inevitably lengthens, Spatz said she and her crew plan to schedule more visits, sphygmomanometer — AKA blood pressure cuff — in hand, to check how hard their patients’ hearts are working to pump blood.

Dexter Jones with DNP Katherine Tucker, Community Impact Director of the American Heart Association Lynette Coleman, and Dr. Erica Spatz.

Only three or four patrons/patients stopped by Dexter’s Thursday morning during the hour and a half that Spatz had showed up. The health team said they’re hoping to catch more people not just by coming back to the barbershop, but by branching out to faith centers. And by making sure community leaders, such as shop owner Dexter Jones himself, work as care liaisons. 

Jones said he has struggled with high blood pressure himself. He has organized his own events in the past to combat hypertension among his neighbors.

Jones is organizing his annual Unity in the Community” festival at Goffe Street Park on Aug. 21 this year. Workers from Cornell Scott Hill Health Center plan to screen attendees for hypertension.

Age, diet, lack of physical activity and stress can all contribute to high blood pressure, Doctor of Nursing Practice Katherine Tucker said. 

Jones’ barber shop has been operating on Dixwell Avenue for 26 years. Jones said most of his clients are older men whom he has known for that same amount of time. In other words, his clientele are prime targets for the stealthy cause of sickness.

Health is not a common topic in barber chairs, according to Jones. (Read more about the usual barber back and forth in a previous Word on the Street story here.)

When Jones first learned years back that his numbers were over the recommended 120/80 mmHg, he said, he quit white bread and soda — and in turn went from 289 to 229 pounds. He overhauled his diet to avoid going on medication — because, he said, it pays doctors, not people, to keep someone on drugs.

Before the doctors took off, Jones sat down in a hair chair to get his own blood pressure checked. 

It’s high,” Tucker told him.

That was good to know, Jones said. 

Sometimes people are aware, sometimes they aren’t,” Tucker noted, proving the point as to why her team was there and the reason why hypertension is named the silent killer.”

Typically, Tucker said, health workers will connect those with hypertension to primary care doctors or educate them about how to get their blood pressure under control moving forward. In Jones’ case, he likely just needs to adhere more closely to his already established diet and exercise routine, she suggested.

Fortunately, Tucker and her colleagues would be back sometime soon to check in not just on Jones’ clients, but on Jones himself. 

Click on the play arrow to watch the full conversation with Dexter Jones and the YNHH high-blood-pressure crew during the "Word on the Street" segment of WNHH FM's "LoveBabz LoveTalk."

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