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Sunday, December 11, 2005

Hypertension


My nightly routine, after office hours (5 pm), are choosing the restaurant where I would have my dinner; afterwards, I'll take my walk, window shop around Al Khobar, look at passerby, people, shops, UKay clothes or just loiter around; I justify this with – alang magawa eh.

Anyway, last night I went inside the Aldawa Pharmacy, just in front of Alissa Souk, to have my blood pressure taken. The pharmacy has this machine that takes blood pressure, I am not sure though, whether it takes accurate measurements. It is for free, and so you can take your measurements repeatedly as you wish. Anyway, my blood pressure was 135/83, a safe range but indicates that I have to do something to reduce this before it gets out of control. Again, for lack of nothing to do, what I did was observed around 20 people have their blood pressure taken. My findings of these observations were as follows (again, I justify this with – alang magawa e, hehe): most of the Filipinos here have pre-hypertension levels (40%), and/or high blood pressure (50%). Contrastingly, most of the Indians and Bangladeshis have normal, or below normal blood pressure levels. Why? Is it the diet?

Note that my sample is very low (n=20) and I don’t know where is random sampling there…hehehe, nor the standard error, or the significant levels. Now, what I will do (again, same excuse) I will go there every other night, have my blood pressure taken, so I can monitor whether my walks and, my using of stairs at the office have an effect on my blood pressure levels. And at the same time, watch 20 people everytime, so I can fairly have a higher sample, so as to make my conclusion "valid". Anyway, I have until, September 2006, to do this “scientific study”, hehehehe. Let's see…a lang magawa eh.