Snipping Away at a Health Threat

(San Bernadino Sun) — A tradition of barbers doing medicine goes back to the early Middle Ages, when barbers were also surgeons.  Barber-surgeon guilds began appearing across Europe in the 1200s and until 1700s, when they went back to just barbering. The association of barbering and medicine is being revived in an interesting new way. Wally’s Barber Shop in Altadena is the first in the greater Los Angeles area to become part of a clinical trial in which African-American neighborhood barbershops are pressed into service in the battle against high blood pressure. Others will follow. Dr. Ronald G. Victor has already shown that the involvement of barbershops can work to lower blood pressure and improve blood pressure control. An article published in “Archives of Internal Medicine” earlier this year showed that blood pressure levels fell when a group of African-American barbers in Texas offered blood pressure checks during men’s haircut visits and promoted physician follow-ups.

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