Nursing school to offer hypertension screenings

The IU School of Nursing, along with the Student Health Center, is conducting free hypertension screenings for all students, faculty and staff for the first time. Funded by a grant from the University, the screenings are held twice a week.\nHypertension, also known as high blood pressure, can be very serious and can cause blindness, kidney disease, stroke, and even increase the risk for a heart attack. Experts believe that high blood pressure is caused by a combination of factors, including family history, certain diseases, and many more factors that are not yet known. \nSenior Alisha Pedigo, a research assistant at the School of Nursing, helps with the free hypertension screenings. \n"I feel this is an important health issue that can be controlled if detected early," she said. "We have already caught several cases of hypertension and made several referrals to physicians and the Health and Wellness Education Center."\nHypertension most often affects people with heart, thyroid or kidney disease and is a normal part of the aging process. Because of this, the hypertension screenings were not initially targeted at students.\nBut when students were tested for high blood pressure at the screenings, a disturbing trend began to appear. A number of students showed signs of high blood pressure. The cause, it seemed, was that the students were using diet supplements and/or herbal energy enhancers that are available in nutrition stores. Hoping to enhance their desired results, some students increase the recommended dosages, causing high blood pressure.\nAssistant professor Deanna Reising of the IU School of Nursing said people of all ages should be tested once a year for high blood pressure, especially after the results of the students she's seen. \nReising said the heavy use of enhancers may have a connection to sports. Some of the students said their high school coaches did not dissuade them from using natural enhancers, a practice that seems to be becoming more and more common.\nMegan Voigt, a sophomore at the University of Evansville, used supplements in high school because she felt they improved her swimming performance. \n"My coach never encouraged us to use enhancers, but I knew a lot of girls on the team who took them," Voigt said. "I feel like it helped me go faster. It was a natural way of getting an edge I guess." \nVoigt was never screened for hypertension and said she had no idea that the supplements she had used could have potentially been dangerous.\nAlthough there seems to be a connection between herbal enhancers and hypertension, the disease is not limited only to people who use supplements. However, Reising suggests that anyone who is currently using them or is thinking about starting should get tested immediately to make sure there are no problems.\nThe spring hypertension screening schedule will be posted on www.indiana.edu/~iubnurse/home/service/service.html.