I’ve had a couple of doctor visits recently, and my blood pressure has been completely within limits, not too high and not too low. I think it may be that I am drinking strictly decaf coffee now. I know caffeine has been an issue in the past. But my stress level isn’t appreciably lower, I’m not exercising a lot, and though I have lost some weight this year, my weight is still well over what it should be for optimal health. Sometimes I just have to just be grateful for the good that’s happening in my life, without worrying too much about the whys and wherefores, etc. whatnot, so forth.

I haven’t been tracking my blood pressure at home, and with the couple of good reports I have had at my various medical visits, I don’t think I will bother with doing that for now. I still take my medicine religiously, and I don’t anticipate ever being able to go off that regimen. I have asked about it before, and the doc has just said I should stay on it unless I start feeling light-headed, which I guess is a symptom of excessively low blood pressure.

So I think I should just put in a good word here for regular checkups, once per year. You at least get your blood pressure taken, and you can get some good info from blood tests as well, so you know in advance when you’re at risk for various diseases, like diabetes or liver disease, prostate disease, and others. And as far as blood pressure is concerned, if you don’t have your own machine, which you can get for about $20, you can get your blood pressure taken by a machine in some grocery stores and pharmacies, maybe even a large discount store.

As I write this, it is entering the fall season, and I keep asking my pharmacist when the new flu shot will be available. And this time, as I expected all along, I’ll be able to get the latest COVID-19 vaccine at the same time. At last, a schedule that makes sense. I know there are still pockets of high COVID activity around the world. Recently there was some news of mask mandates returning for some areas in California. But I expect this will just become a routine, and pairing the vaccine boosters with flu shots makes sense.

Please go to YouTube, even if you’re listening to this on a different platform, and subscribe to the channel; it’s real easy: go to runningafever.com/youtube. It helps promote the show; the more subscribers we have, the better. You can read the blog post complete show notes for this episode at runningafever.com/335.

Thanks for listening and if you’ve got that fever, keep it, and if you don’t, catch the fever, and I will talk to you next time, on running a fever.

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-healthcare-worker-measuring-her-own-blood-pressure-using-a-sphygmomanometer-5721672/