I am 53 years old and I have been hypertensive for more than half of my life on earth.

My first episode of HBP happened on the 28th of June 1994 when I tragically lost my father to an assassination at a project site in Jebba.

We were there together to supervise the progress of a government project.

We also had a long intense meetings with workers, supervisors and union leaders as there were lingering issues that needed to be resolved.

After the meeting I was exhausted and I went to eat lunch at a cafe but before I could carry the first base of tuwo I heard the most horrible sound that still haunts me till this day “gboaaaaa” after which a crazy chaos ensued..All I thought about was my old man….where is my father? what is really happening?

I was running back into the chaos as dust had encircled the whole area and this is when I saw some men restraining a man and disarming a man with a firearm and next to him was my father laying down and gasping faintly for breath.

I ran over and lifted my father up and began to carry him to the direction that was the hospital in the area, I didn’t even know how far it was but I was just walking hastily until a good Samaritan stopped to pick me up as the chaos was still tense.

On getting to the hospital he was taken to the emergency room and the doctor came out after 30 mins to tell me he had died.

He said that he died almost immediately we brought him to the hospital but they were scared to tell us because the hospital lobby was already filled with tensed up workers.

This is the point where everything crumbled because the last thing I remembered was people screaming my name ABEL! ABEL! MR ABEL!

I woke up after 2 days and the doctor told me that I had a very serious case of hypertension with my BP at 185/119 which was regularized at the hospital as I was not allowed to leave until my BP came down to 134/88 they wanted it to be lower but I had business to take care of as the emergency head of the family.

I was warned to stay away from high stress environment but that was not so possible as I was the sole heir to my father’s company and my father’s company is the embodiment of stress.

Fast forward to 2023, the stress is still very high although slightly eased by technology.

My average day has me receiving over 70 Calls to my personal line, about 450 calls to the company line, 3 physical meetings and 2 zoom meetings.

The only way I sustain my blood pressure is by using 6 to 8 different prescription medicine which always changed every time I had another episode of Severe headaches, Anxiety, Chest pain and heavy pounding around my neck that had me in and out of the emergency room time after time.

The last straw was drawn when I began to see blood in my urine and this is when I felt that this hypertension had to stop.

I stopped listening to doctors in hospitals and began combing the internet for a solution

This is when I stumbled on a podcast by a human biologist named Gary Brecka

This encounter changed my life for ever as I can categorically and literally call myself an ex-hypertensive patient with my blood pressure now at 108/78.