San Diego region hospitals, healthcare providers and businesses are offering free blood pressure checkups at over 200 locations Friday to help fight heart disease.
Last year 17,000 people took advantage of the checkups, and officials behind the 4th annual “Love Your Heart” campaign are hoping for more this year. A complete list of locations is online.
“Love Your Heart has one goal: to make it as easy as possible for adults to get their blood pressure checked, which is a great first step toward improving their heart health,” said Nick Macchione, director of the county’s Health and Human Services Agency, at a press conference to draw attention to the event.
“We are going to help San Diegans to ‘love their hearts’ by offering free blood pressure screenings all over the county,” said Supervisor Ron Roberts, who himself was checked in front of reporters.
For the first time, the Mexican communities of Tijuana, Tecate and Rosarito are also participating, with over 30 locations.
An estimated 4,500 people living in the San Diego region die of heart disease every year.
Anthony DeMaria, founding director of the UCSD Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, said cardiovascular disease is preventable by the easy measures of monitoring blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesteral levels.
“Everyone has to die of something. You just don’t want to die of something stupid,” he said.
