Santa Barbara Doctors ExtraCare – July 2021 Newsletter
July 2021 ExtraCare
Newsletter
Summer! Lazy days at the beach, hillside picnics and poolside gatherings, all without masks!
This month we provide some updated information on the COVID delta variant and discuss ways that you can lower your blood pressure and keep it down.
Please note that Dr. Hrach will be out of office July 25-Aug 1 on her annual boat trip to Catalina with limited cell service. For immediate assistance during business hours, please call the office at 805-898-0500. Dr. Haig may be contacted for after hour emergencies at 415-260-5269.
COVID-19 – Delta Variant on the Rise – Vaccination Offers Our Best Defense
By Dr. Sawyer Haig
According to the Santa Barbara Department of Public Health, active COVID-19 cases are steadily on the rise in our community, with 120 new cases reported in the week ending Tuesday, July 13. There were 97 active (infectious) cases within Santa Barbara County as of Tuesday. This mirrors trends across the state and region.
According to Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara Department of Public Health, the increase could be due to the highly infectious Delta variant, which was first discovered in India in December 2020, and is now the predominant strain in the United States and around the world. Dr. Lynn N. Fitzgibbons, infections disease physician, summarized the local impacts of the Delta Variant in a Community Update presented on July 8, 2020. Researchers have yet to find a large difference in the severity of disease caused by the Delta variant as compared to other strains, but the Delta variant is the most highly transmissible of all known variants.
Throughout California, most new cases of COVID-19 infections, serious disease, and hospitalization are happening among unvaccinated people and those who are immunocompromised.
Fully vaccinated individuals are well protected against infection, severe illness, and hospitalization from all Covid-19 strains that are circulating locally, including the Delta, Alpha, and Gama variants. An individual is fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine and one week after the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Effectiveness against the Delta variant after only a single dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine has been found to be low, and experts urge completing the full course of vaccinations.
As the Delta variant becomes more prevalent in Santa Barbara County it is increasingly urgent that eligible individuals become fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccines are available on a walk-in basis at many pharmacies locally as well as by appointment or walk-in at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital on Thursdays from 11am – 7pm. For more information, or to schedule an appointment for vaccination, please visit the myturn.ca.gov website.
The Santa Barbara County Community Data Dashboard (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/030e625c69a04378b2756de161f82ef6) offers frequent updates regarding Covid-19 variants and local case rates.
New Hypertension Guidelines
By Dr. Barbara Hrach
The American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology (ACC) recently released a scientific statement that has the primary care world abuzz. And while it certainly hasn’t gotten the media attention that the delta variant has, it’s something that I thought worthwhile sharing with you as it pertains to a significant portion of our practice.
The AHA/ACC recommend that among adults with low-risk of cardiovascular disease who have stage 1 hypertension (blood pressure 130-139/80-89 mmHg), management should start with nonpharmacologic therapy and if blood pressure remains uncontrolled at 3-6 months then one should consider pharmacologic therapy.
While this may not sound like earth shattering news to you, it actually is quite a change in the way that we have previously managed hypertension and will likely result in more of our patients ultimately taking blood pressure medications.
But before I pull out the prescription pad, I’d like to remind you that there are MANY non-pharmacological modalities that you can embark upon NOW to lower your risk of high blood pressure.
These include:
Maintain a healthy weight: Strive for a body mass index (BMI) between 20 and 25.
Eat healthier: Eat lots of fruit, veggies and low-fat dairy, less saturated and total fat and NO SUGAR.
Reduce sodium: Ideally, stay under 1,500 mg a day, but aim for at least a 1,000 mg per day reduction.
Get active: Aim for at least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking or bicycling, every week. That’s about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week
Limit alcohol: Drink no more than 1-2 drinks a day. (One for most women, two for most men.)
Get Enough Sleep: 7 or more hours per night is recommended.
Do Not Smoke
Limit Stress
Begin Deep Breathing Exercises: This is my favorite because not only has it been proven in clinical trials to reduce blood pressure, it also helps to reduce anxiety. In fact the FDA has approved a device called RESPeRATE to treat high blood pressure. It uses musical tones to guide deep abdominal breathing. Its goal is to reduce the number of breaths to under 10 per minute, and to prolong each exhalation.
Another beginner method of deep breathing is called equal breathing and is based on inhaling through the nose for a count of four and exhaling for a count of four. With time, this cycle can be prolonged to counts of eight in, eight out.
There is so much that you can do on your own to help control blood pressure and I hope that you have found this information useful. I for one am just happy to be writing about something other than COVID. Inhale……..Exhale……..Ahhhh
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