Home Monitoring Critical to Control

Over four million California adults over the age of 45 have high blood pressure, a main risk factor for heart attack and stroke. A statewide initiative to help reduce high blood pressure is being kicked off in Walnut Creek by Mended Hearts, an affiliate of the American Heart Association, Microlife, and Longs Drugs. The event will also be a training location for Mended Hearts volunteers, all former heart patients themselves, who provide counseling services to heart patients in hospitals throughout California and the U.S. The blood pressure screenings are part of National High Blood Pressure Education Month initiatives to raise awareness of the importance of controlling high blood pressure by monitoring it at home.

California residents are not alone in their risk for heart attack and stroke. The American Heart Association estimates that more than 50 percent of the U.S. population has the deadly disease that is often called the silent killer.

   WHO:    Mended Hearts, Longs and Microlife Provide Free Screenings

   WHEN:   Thursday, May 19, 2005 from 11 AM - 2:30 PM

   WHERE:  Longs Wellness Center
           738 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek 94598

Source: Microlife USA; Mended Hearts

CONTACT: Teresa Barnes of Microlife USA, +1-303-521-4080; or Tim Elsner
of Mended Hearts, +1-214-724-0038