joe montana tackles hypertension

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Joe's new team

While Joe wasn’t inclined to visit a doctor for anything besides his beat-up knees, Jennifer encouraged him to get a physical because his family has a history of hypertension. His mother had high blood pressure as do her siblings; one of Joe’s grandfathers died from heart disease at age 54.

“We eventually had a heart-to-heart talk where I told him that I was taking care of myself so I could be around for years for the kids and hoped that he would do the same,” Jennifer says. “That got to him, so he went in for an appointment.”

It may have saved his life. That was five years ago, when Joe was 46. “I thought the appointment was a formality, just a routine physical, so I wasn’t too concerned,” Joe says. “But in the back of my mind, I knew I had a family history of high blood pressure.”

His doctor found Joe’s blood pressure was just over 140/90. He sent Joe straight to the cardiologist. Additional tests revealed he also had a partially clogged artery.

“It was unnerving,” Jennifer says. “We didn’t expect it. It alarmed us, and the cardio doctor put a good scare into us, which is what we needed.”

Then Jennifer and their four children, Alexandra, 21; Elizabeth, 20; Nathaniel, 17; and Nicholas, 15, started working together with Joe on his next comeback—lowering his blood pressure and saving his life.

Changing the Game Plan
As a quarterback, Joe was the master of comebacks. He led his teams to 31 fourth-quarter come-from-behind wins. After his diagnosis, Joe turned to that same mind-set to contend with his high blood pressure.

“As an athlete, you’re always coming back from something,” Joe says. “I realized that I had to put my mind on achieving my blood pressure success zone, and I’d have to exercise more and cut back on some of the foods I love.”

At the dinner table, family members moved the saltshaker and the “seconds” plate out of Joe’s reach. They tried to steer him away from foods he should avoid. The boys stopped asking him to take them out for fast food. When Joe reached for a salty snack between meals, Jennifer would be there to drop the penalty flag.

“The first few times it happened, I got mad about my wife reminding me,” Joe says. “The girls moving the seconds plate away was annoying at first. But I understood that I needed to make changes and my family was helping. Even if I wasn’t happy about it at the time, I’d later tell them I appreciated what they were doing.&rdquo

For many men, accepting such help means swallowing some male pride. “It brings you down to earth and in touch with what life is really about,” Heller says. “Think of yourself like a Joe Montana and accept the help. Part of loving someone is doing things that are helpful and allowing your spouse to feel relief when treatment is progressing well. Pushing a spouse away only adds to the burden of worrying. It’s not about you. It is also about her.”