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My Patient, The “Health Nut”

A version of the following post, by Kimberly Manning, FACP, appeared on the blog “Life at Grady.”

“My blood pressure is still borderline? Man!”

“Yeah…and from looking through the chart, it was 150/96 on your admission. It’s pretty much been that since you’ve been here, give or take a few points. That’s a little more than borderline, actually.” I paused for a moment, realizing that I sounded a bit discouraging. “I don’t think this would be hard to get under control at all, sir. I mean…you’re such a motivated patient, you know?”

I studied my patient carefully. He was in his late thirties, although he could totally pass for a twenty-something all day, every day. His skin looked like someone had grabbed him by the tip of his toe and uniformly dipped him in milk chocolate — not a single blemish anywhere.

“I eat right and I exercise…in fact, I’m a health nut! I’m really kind of surprised that my pressure keeps running high.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*

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