In this Sunday, March 11, 2018, photo, Barber Eric Muhammad, owner of A New You Barbershop, left, jokes with regular customer Marc M. Sims before measuring his blood pressure in Inglewood, Calif.

Regular check ups can save your life, but they don't necessarily require you to go to the doctor. You can also receive effective incremental care at a place like your barbershop. In a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, African-American men in Los Angeles went to their local barbers and, with the help of a pharmacist right there in the shop, effectively lowered their high blood pressure, decreasing their risk for heart disease, the No. 1 killer of men in the U.S. What's more, doctors were hardly involved. "High blood pressure disproportionately affects the African-American community, and we must find new ways to reach out so we can prevent strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and early deaths," said Ronald G. Victor, MD, associate director of the Smidt Heart Institute and lead author, in a press release.