Thursday, May 06, 2004

Kids' blood pressure is rising, but not mine

For a while there, my daughter was in the forefront of medical research. When I saw a news story titled "U.S. Kids Suffer Blood Pressure Rises, Study Finds," I thought, well, there you go. I'd been surprised when my daughter tested with high blood pressure, and when a second measure a week later had it even higher. But apparently it's not such a surprising thing. Of course, the rise the researchers are talking about is just a trend of a few points. But why shouldn't my girl be an overacheiver in something? It's just an extreme expression of an overall national health crisis. Trendy, that's us!

Or not. She went back to the doctor today for the third, if-it's-still-high-it's-off-to-the-cardiologist test, and darned if her blood pressure wasn't nice and beautifully normal. No need for specialists. No need for additional pumping up. No need to keep worrying. And thank God for that. Don't know what problem those other kids are having, but we're way healthy here. We're all about trend-busting, as it turns out.

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