My Dad’s Stroke Changed How I Viewed the Risks of Hypertension

• Actor and director Aisha Tyler opens up about why high blood pressure is personal.
• She teamed up with the CDC Foundation to raise awareness about hypertension and how to control it.
• About half of Americans live with high blood pressure.

Actor and director Aisha Tyler, best known for playing Dr. Tara Lewis in Criminal Minds and Lana Kane in Archer, is spreading the word about preventing high blood pressure, which affects nearly half of U.S. adults.

“[My] father had a pretty major stroke several years ago, and it really made me start to focus a bit more closely on my own potential risk factors, including blood pressure,” she told Healthline.

Because her dad was a fit and active person, the stroke was a shock.

“[It] just made me realize that these factors don’t always reveal themselves in either lifestyle or in physical symptoms,” Tyler said.

She teamed up with the CDC Foundation to launch Hypertension Bites, a national campaign designed to help adults better understand high blood pressure and the steps they can take to get it under control during midlife.

Left uncontrolled, it is the leading risk factor for heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, aortic dissection, kidney failure, and dementia.

“Over time, high blood pressure can cause chronic heart damage from excessive thickening of the heart muscle (left ventricular hypertrophy), eventually weakening the muscle and causing heart failure,” Bhavna Suri, MD, cardiologist at Manhattan Cardiology and contributor to LabFinder, told Healthline.

When it damages the blood vessels in the eyes, it can lead to hypertensive retinopathy, resulting in blurred vision or complete blindness, she added.

She also noted that it can “cause hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis, leading to erectile dysfunction.“

Because the condition is typically asymptomatic and most people with high blood pressure feel fine, they frequently miss high blood pressure symptoms, said Suri.

When symptoms related to high blood pressure, like headaches, dizziness, vision changes, or fatigue, occur, she said they are often attributed to stress, aging, or lack of sleep rather than hypertension.

However, Suri said high blood pressure is treatable and controllable despite being a chronic condition that typically requires lifelong management.

“While there is no ‘cure’ that makes it go away forever, many people successfully keep their blood pressure in a healthy range through a combination of lifestyle changes and medical treatment,” she said.

This is the message Tyler is spreading through the Hypertension Campaign. Healthline spoke with her to learn more about her thoughts on preventive care, healthy aging, and how she balances work and life.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

I was so excited about this hypertension campaign because I felt like it gives people a really simple place to start. Have a visit with your doctor, find out what your numbers are, put a really simple plan in place [and] if you have to go on medication, medications are really effective, and they can help you control your numbers.

[People often think] if you have a stroke or if you have a heart attack, there’s just nothing you can really do about it. It’s just something that’s a mystery. It runs in the family. But there’s just literally so many things you can do to mitigate that risk, and I wanted to try to demystify some of that for people.

Sometimes people [also] think, “out of sight, out of mind,” but in the case of hypertension, what you don’t know could have a very detrimental effect on your life. So it’s just better to know. Knowledge is power.

Tyler: Yes. I was a real no-guts, no-glory kind of person in my [younger years]. I was a competitive athlete, and I was very much like, “If it hurts, you’re just not pushing hard enough.”

It’s been a philosophical adjustment now. I’m a real science-based person [and we know that] being well-rested isn’t just about good vibes. If I want to perform at my best level, I need to actually make rest a part of my routine.

I used to be performing at a high level, pushing myself to collapse, and now I realize that’s not optimal. I feel better, I sleep better, I’m more fit now than I was 10 or 15 years ago. And that is entirely because I’ve changed the way that I take care of my body and my mind.

Tyler: I try to get eight hours of sleep every day. Sleep is number one, and we know that sleep has such a big impact on all of your health factors, including preventing cognitive decline.

I also take a walk every single day, sometimes two, if I can manage it. And they’re not strenuous, they’re just meant to reset the mind. It’s a really great time to think, solve a problem, or if you’ve had a stressful moment. I really focus on de-stressing as part of my work today.

I listen to a lot of YouTube, too, and like optimization podcasts [that] focus on women’s health and optimizing women’s health.

The more boring stuff is, I try to eat different vegetables. I don’t eat a lot of junk food. I have a glass of wine occasionally, but I try to eat healthy, so that those nights out feel more special and fun. Balance also makes those nights feel more special.

Tyler: I really like being busy. It is my natural state. I am a workaholic. I’m not ashamed to say that out loud. As I get older, [my focus] is trying to find work balance because I think if you asked me 10 years ago, I would say I don’t have any. But the more balance I have in my life, the better I am at my job, the better I am at being creative and coming up with ideas.

I also don’t apologize for being ambitious. Especially as a woman, we’re told, “Hey, don’t push so hard, stay in your lane, take it easy.” I feel like my ambition is what’s gotten me to where I am, and my work ethic has gotten me to where I am. And so, I embrace it, but I’m embracing it in a more balanced way than when I was younger.

I definitely focus more than I ever have on my friendships and my relationships. There’s a lot of science around how friendships are what keep you active and connected as you get older, so I really focus on the people in my life that I care about, spending quality time with them, and connecting with them in a meaningful way. That has been a big priority as I’ve gotten older.