(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa chapter of the American Heart Association is launching a pilot program that aims to help a growing number of Iowans overcome the risks of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, which afflicts almost half of us. Wesley Franklin, the agency’s community impact director, says “Check. Change. Control.” will initially focus on 250 central Iowans to better manage their high blood pressure before the program eventually goes statewide. “The ‘Check. Change. Control.’ program is really geared towards empowering patients to take charge of their cardiovascular health,” Franklin says, “with some self-monitoring tips at home around blood pressure, and just providing them some knowledge, some awareness, to better understand their heart numbers going forward.”

The pilot program will run four months and be operated out of hospitals and community care centers in Des Moines, West Des Moines and Stuart.  “The first month will focus on controlling your blood pressure,” Franklin says. “The second month is learning about eating smart and reducing sodium throughout your day. The third month is more of that physical activity component, and the final month is kind of tying it all together and doing more of a mental health and well-being approach.”

The goal is to help Iowans help themselves to tackle what’s known as “the silent killer,” as high blood pressure is hard to spot and if left untreated, can lead to a heart attack, stroke and other serious health conditions. Franklin says the situation in Iowa is worsening. “Within the last ten years, normally, we’re about a third of our population has hypertension but now we shift to about 50-percent,” Franklin says, “so this program is aimed at tackling those numbers to provide some education awareness around hypertension control.”

He notes, many of the 103-million people in the U-S who have high blood pressure are unaware. Central Iowans who are interested in participating in the program can contact Franklin at wesley.franklin@heart.org.