Healthy

❤know your numbers! 2009Driving homethe messageBlack cab driverNeville Chapman gotto know his numbersDrivers of black cabs may have ‘The Knowledge’ but we discovered that 75 per centof them do not know their most vital statistics – their blood pressure numbers.Our ‘Know your Numbers!’ Survey,carried out in conjunction withScottish charity the High BloodPressure Foundation, found thatonly a quarter of black cab taxidrivers know their blood pressurenumbers, yet 61 per cent of thosetested were found to have highblood pressure readings (at orabove 140/90mmHg).These findings, launched at thestart of Know your Numbers!Week, also revealed an England/Scotland divide when it comes toblood pressure health among cabdrivers, with Scotland faring worst.The research showed that:l 70 per cent of cabbies inScotland had high bloodpressure readings comparedwith 52 per cent of theircounterparts in England.l Twice as many cabbies inScotland (56 per cent) than inEngland (27 per cent) said theyate convenience foods likepasties, crisps or chocolatebars either every day orseveral times a weekl Half of cabbies in Scotland (51per cent) admitted to ‘never’thinking about the salt they addto food or checking food labelsfor salt content, compared witha fifth (19 per cent) of theircounterparts in England.Mike Rich, the BPA’s ExecutiveDirector, said: “Black cab drivershave The Knowledge when itcomes to a city’s streets, but ourresearch has shown that thisunfortunately doesn’t translateinto knowing their most vitalhealth statistics – their bloodpressure numbers.“There does appear to be a bloodpressure divide between thecabbies we tested in England andScotland, and this may be down totheir respective diets and lifestyles.Although Scotland fared worse,the fact that around half of theLondon cabbies had high readingsis still cause for concern.”Susan Inch, Director of the HighBlood Pressure Foundation, said:“It’s worrying that nearly threequarters of the cabbies we testedhere in Scotland had high bloodpressure readings. It’s notsurprising given that 50 per centof them admitted to not watchingtheir salt intake – too much salt isknown to raise blood pressure –and regularly eating high fatconvenience foods. The goodnews is that they now know theirblood pressure numbers and howto lower them.”photo by simon goodwin16