Montana brings his message to Buffalo
by MATT KRUEGER, Reporter

Joe Montana

The message Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana is bringing to the people is simple - if he can get high blood pressure, anyone can.

The two-time NFLMVP, who led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl championships in the 1980s, has been touring the country with that message for the past five years, ever since he was diagnosed. And that tour came to Amherst last Thursday, as Montana and Dr. James Rippe, a Harvard trained cardiologist, spoke to employees at Independent Health.

Promoting his free book "Joe Montana's Family Playbook for Managing High Blood Pressure," the three-time Super Bowl MVP told his story of over consumption of greasy hamburgers and lack of exercise that comprised his post-playing days. He went from daily workouts of pumping iron to doing bicep curls with heavily salted French fries.

"I'd almost quit working out all together," Montana said of the seven years between his retirement in 1995 and his diagnosis. "I figured I worked out seven days a week for 31 years. It was time to cut back and it was almost non-existent at that point."

But a trip to Rippe's office early in 2002 served as Montana's wake-up call. He joined the nearly 72 million Americans to suffer from high blood pressure.

"I basically was going in for a yearly physical. I had no idea," Montana said. "I wasn't expecting to get it either. So, Dr. Rippe said that statistics say, at my age, I have a 40 percent chance of having high blood pressure. I have a family history, which could be a small portion of it. But we really don't know exactly why."

There's a family history for Montana. His grandfather died at age 54 from heart disease and his mother also had high blood pressure. But Rippe was quick to point out that is only a minor factor leading to the former quarterback's disease.

"Some families have more hypertension than others, but it would be a mistake to say Joe Montana got high blood pressure, because there was high blood pressure in his family," Rippe said. "In 90 percent of people who have high blood pressure, we don't know why they have it. I think the message that should go out, is that if Joe Montana can have high blood pressure, than anyone can have it. He's always been fit, he's never smoked cigarettes, he's never been significantly overweight. That's really the message we're trying to get out in our campaign, that somebody of a high-level athlete like Joe Montana can have high blood pressure, than anybody can. So everyone needs to know his blood pressure."

Like anyone with high blood pressure, Montana has had to make alterations to his lifestyle. Gone are the days of salting his food before tasting it and eating steaks the size of a football. And his attitude toward working out has reverted back to making sure he hits the cardio equipment every day.

"I still eat the same foods. I just don't eat them as often," Montana said, adding that his wife and four children get on his case if he tries to order too much bad food at a time.

"Like, I could have a burger every day for lunch or dinner. But I rarely do that anymore. It's usually salad and fish or chicken and small portions. That's been the biggest key, just cutting back and not eating those foods I know I shouldn't have quite as often. I could have steak every night, but I don't. So I save my times up for when I feel like I can't take it any longer and I have to have one."

His new routine also consists of 45 minutes to an hour of cardio exercise a day and taking one pill every morning to help maintain his blood pressure.

For Rippe, the goal for this campaign is to raise awareness of high blood pressure and promote the importance of keeping it under control.

"Our campaign is based in two very simple ideas," he said. "The first is we want to motivate people to get their blood pressure measured. And one third of the people with high blood pressure don't know they have it. So we've got to get people to understand that this is painless to have your blood pressure measured, and since it has no symptoms, you can't treat it unless you get your blood pressure measured."

" The second thing is to educate people about what they can do, what their doctors can do and how the partnership can work. I think high blood pressure needs to be more in the forefront in the national debate and the national consciousness about lowering the risk of heart disease. So we're very fortunate to have been able to go out for the past five years and try to move that needle a little bit, to create more awareness."

To get a copy of the book, visit www.getbpdown.com.

e-mail: mkrueger@beenews.com