A stroke survivor credits a new procedure for helping him take control of his high blood pressure.
Doctors are using a new treatment approach that targets certain nerves.
“I’ve been battling high blood pressure since I’ve been 15 years old,” Steven Politis said.
Now 65, Politis says he’s had enough dealing with his high blood pressure, taking 12 pills daily to try to keep it under control.
“I’ve taken every medicine known to man,” Politis said. “And that got to the point where I stopped taking my meds because I didn’t see nothing happening.“
Last December that decision caught up to him. Politis suffered a stroke.
The husband, father and grandfather says it was a wake-up call.
“It kind of shook me up because I wanted to be a part of their lives,“ Politis said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high blood pressure contributed to more than 660,000 deaths in 2023.
And nearly half of all adults in the U.S., 119 million people, have high blood pressure.
“And even if we just drop someone’s blood pressure 10 points, you’d improve their mortality overall by about 20%,” cardiologist Killian McCarthy said.
He says doctors at Atrium Health are taking a new approach to help patients lower their blood pressure.
It’s an FDA-approved procedure called renal artery denervation.
Doctors say patients who can’t tolerate blood pressure medication or their blood pressure remains uncontrolled with medication may qualify for this procedure.
A catheter through the arteries emits radio frequency waves, burning nerves near the kidney.
“To put it simply, burns some of those extra nerves that are causing high blood pressure,” McCarthy said.
Doctors say not everyone with high blood pressure qualifies for it, but patients who do are seeing success.
“I would say the vast majority of patients when we studied have gone at least 30 days before we start seeing good results,” McCarthy said.
“When this came up, it kind of blew me away,” Politis said.
He’s using the procedure to take back control of his blood pressure and his life.
“Absolutely, it’s my time. Now, you know, life is short, so, you know, I wanted to get back into who I was,” Politis said.
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