Sadly no such luck: today in the surgery it was a whopping 200/96 and it seems I am doomed to be taking pills for the rest of my life I really do feel so depressed about it. The dr didn't know whether to laugh or cry and neither did I. I realise some of it is white coat syndrome but all my efforts have only resulted in a RISE in bp, .
Initially an MOT last Feb had revealed bp of 163/96, then a month later a 24 hr monitor gave me a daytime average of 160/90 stage 2. Loads of blood and urine tests in between were all fine, so I decided to make the effort to improve my lifestyle. Not that it was bad as I cook from scratch, but there is always room for improvement. I had been half-heartedly losing weight since early January, now I went into overdrive: there is nothing like a health scare to focus the mind ! I should add that I am 70 years old and very active. Not overweight,at least not now, I have lost in 4 months about 18 lbs but even back in Jan I had a BMI of 23.9 - now it is 22.3, and my waist measurement is good too. I cut out salt, butter and cream and I walk briskly 2 or 3 miles a day. I so didn't want to be taking pills for the rest of my life but now my lovely doctor, who happens to be a friend of my daughter, has persuaded me that I should take them. If I was her mother she said she would be jumping up and down insisting! She tells me not to think of it as an illness, which it is really, but rather just a condition that is sorted by a pill. So now I am about to start on a journey - she's put me on RAMIPRIL1.5 which is about as low as can be, and to return in a month. I dread the side effects. Does anyone have first hand experience of what I am about to encounter?
My husband who never goes anywherfe if he can't go by car, smokes cigars occasionaly, drinks wine but not excessively, and consumes butter, cream and salt like it was going out of fashion - he says he likes the 'crunch'.... and has twice been exremely ill with sepsis this winter, had his bp taken yesterday and it was fine. There is no justice. Not fair !!
Don't worry about side effects. Not everyone has the bad experience my husband had, and there a are loads of tablets on the market that the GP can choose from so there is bound to be one for you! Sounds like you have a good relationship with your doctor so trust him and he will get you sorted. The fact that your husband hasn't been well could be the reason why your BP has stayed so high. Stress and worry are one of the prime causes of high BP! I wish you well and keep us informed of your progress. Once your BP is sorted you will feel happier and healthier, and don't feel that you are on a slippery slope - there are millions of people on BP medication who have been on it for 20 years or more and are living healthy and happy lives. all the best.
With such a low dose I wouldn't worry about side effects as they are rare. I agree there is no justice as in 6 years I have doubled my weight after being small all my life until 60yet am o.n a permanent dietd where my husband eats anything and everything and rarely alters. I don't think talking o.ne little pill to keep your Heath is too bad at all - I have to take 24 + pain killers just to get by. Good luck with the new tablets.
You are doing just fine. Don't be discouraged by the results. Keep at it.
The vast majority of us tolerate all sorts of pills very well and you should not be worrying about side-effects. If you are unfortunate to experience any side-effects, don't suffer in silence. Speak to your doctor.
High Gardengnome42 , I think the obviously good relationship you have with your GP is very important. I know it seems daunting to be starting on a life long regime of tablets but you do get used to it. I am one of the unlucky ones who reacts to virtually every medication,BUT THE ONE I AM ABLE TO TAKE WITH NO PROBLEMS IS RAMIPRIL AND IT IS EFFECTIVE. 1.5 is a low dose too, and if there is a problem with it there is lots of others to try! Good luck
Please, please don't beat yourself up about this! You have done absolutely everything you can, but sometimes the genetics are just against you.
The only thing about Ramapril is that it is an ACE Inhibitor which can give some people a very annoying and distressing cough. It might not happen to you though, but if it does there are plenty of other drugs.
I know this sounds really daft, but I had a problem with taking regular medication and I took them out of the packet so I couldn't see the name on the box and kept them hidden in my knicker drawer, It made me feel that I was just taking a vitamin or something!
Sorry to hear of your BP problem-so frustrating for you after all u have done. I have high BP following a heart attack and only have to sniff a statin to feel ill. I'm on Losarten and beta blockers for high blood pressure - I find that I cannot tolerate a high dose but am ok if I take a lower dose. I have be reading up on it and some people are better on a combination rather than a high dose of one, so I'm looking into this. There have been reports this week about sunshine and its benefits so book a holiday to the Med and go and sit under a vine in all that lovely warm air. Evidently it helps release Nitric oxide or something from the body and makes the blood vessels relax. Maybe this is the Mediterranean diet and I'm not talking just about the food. Anyway don't forget all the positives you have achieved in loosing wt and getting fit. Best of luck.
Like the Med idea-just going to book a fortnight! Seriously though, we go to the Med frequently and I am so relaxed my BP does drop. Think it only happens when you are on holiday and not having to work! Earlier on I replied to garden gnome and said I didn't get side effects from Ramipril- not quite true- I forgot he dry cough first thing in a morning, but it' something I got used to very quickly and the rewards far outweigh the problem.
Thanks all of you for the support, it means an awful lot just knowing I'm not on my own. I have always taken pride in my good health and have taken care of it, without being too precious, so it has all come as a shock. It doesn't help too much when my son-in-law [who also has hbp] tells me that I've done well to get to 70 without problems and nobody gets to live out their lives without something going wrong! Thanks! He of course is a lot younger than me and recently lost his younger,seemingly healthy and clean living brother to a massive stroke, so is very conscious of his own high blood pressure and has been on a cocktail of all sorts for about 2 years now, not totally without problems.
Anyway I do think it would be extremely foolish and stupid not to do as I'm told and it could have a huge impact of my husband's and children's lives if I were to have a stroke, heart attack or develop vascular dementia. The mother of one of my daughter's friends recently died after many years of vascular dementia. She had had years of problems starting probably with cystitis, then kidney problems and eventually several TIAs before going into a home.
I ought to be thankful my hypertension was discovered via one of these MOTs that are being wheeled out across the country to anyone who is between 40 and 74 and yet I feel that I've been part of a box ticking culture - the doctor said there was an element of truth in that. However I have discovered that my cholesterol is fine as are my heart, kidneys etc. It's the arteries that are the problem.
So at bedtime yesterday I swallowed my first pill, only a ditsy dose to be true but the doctor said that her money wasn't on it making enough difference and to come back in a month for a review. Pharmacist said to take first 2 pills at bedtime then start taking them first thing in the morning, is this what you do? I'm frightened I might forget to take a dose as I gather the consequences are dire. Next time I wonder what cocktail she will have for me. My son in law did suggest I should buy my own monitor and take the readings to the surgery next time to avoid any white coat syndrome. So I have one being delivered tomorrow and will see how it goes. As it is I just feel so mad that the efforts to improve my lifestyle have ended up making the bp worse. For God's sake - a rise from 160/90 to 200/96 is right off the scale !! However as I didn't smoke, eat junk foods or need to lose vast amounts of weight it was limited what difference I could have made. Omitting salt, walking briskly on a daily basis seems to have been a complete waste of time
have you tried intermittent fasting it is helping me so much you dont have to eat special things you dont need statins all you do is eat for no more than 8-10 hours a day if you can eat less hours say 6 a day this does it it brings your levels right down .
Please try it just for 2 -3 months then test your bloods and see the difference good luck it really does work i will post my next results in August
Best take at night as they may make you light headed at first.. It is a good idea to get your own measure and check 2 or 3 times a day, charting your results, for a week or so prior to GP visit and, with the relationship you seem to have with Dr, take your monitor with you and check a reading with theirs for an accuracy check. It'll also show whether you suffer from white coat syndrome- which DOES exist. Your only just starting out but I'm sure they'll find the right treatment for you and that you'll not even realise your doing it. By the way, don't worry if you miss a dose, just take the next one at the normal time- it won't make much difference and certainly will not do you any harm. Let us all know how you get on.
I know exactly how you feel, it happened to me. I had been fine, healthy diet, exercise, no smoking very little drinking, still working. Got a blurry eye and lived with it. Then when I was at the doc for something else, I mentioned the blurry eye. I was sent straight to eye hospital. I had a blocked vein in my eye. I am now on medications for that and high blood pressure. Doctor said I might have white coat syndrome so I went into Boots and bought a blood pressure monitor and I now monitor my own BP. There are worse things out there than having to take a pill every morning. Consider the alternatives. I did and I take my BP pills and am glad there is a pill to help. Go on! Take the pill (-:
Sorry to hear about the BP after all your hard work. I guess that genetics must play a part in this, so there may be only so much you can do. Apart from the beneficial effects of sunshine
( if only we get a summer!) there seems to be some evidence that beet root juice and garlic capsules can help reduce BP a little. I'm sure the exercise is doing you good, even if you can't measure it.
I hope you have not cut too much fat out of your diet, as it is a vital part of repairing our bodies and enabling us to take in fat soluble vitamins like vit D. Check that you are getting enough Omega 3.
Like your husband I have found that eating butter, cream, salt etc has had no effect on my BP or my cholesterol levels, or on my weight. Is this something to do with my genes, or is the advice to give up these foods wrong? Cutting out processed foods like bread, pasta, sugar seems to be the way that works for me. I have also recently been through the health MOT and realise how lucky I am.
Good luck with the BP measuring, it sounds like a good idea to take readings throughout the day to really see what your level is. Hope you get on with the tablets.
No one in responding to gardengnome42 seem to haveheard about BEETROOT JUICE, and how effective it can be in effectively lowering blood pressure. I have been scared too about the prospects of being on a life long regime of pills, and having read reassuring research reports from different sources about the effectiveness of beetroot juice, I have given it a try and it is working. A glass of beetroot juice would lower BP considerably within a few hours. Garden gnome42, incidentally has started on pills, and I understand it is unsafe to withdraw abruptly. May be what to do is get the doctor's advice on how to withdraw for now to give beetroot juice a try. Fact is that her anxiety about her health and the concern about using pills are factors that can continue to aggravate the bp. It may be expedient to have her apply a remedy she will feel happier with - beetroot juice may be that.
Actually I have tried beetroot juice, 1/2 a pint daily for the past month or more. Like you I'd read about the amazing properties of the stuff, I also like it as a vegetable. Apart from feelgood factors that are probably all in the mind, not to mention turning my pee [and the rest!] pink and pretty, it actually hasn't made a scrap of difference,more's the pity. The Ramipril is only 1.5 strength and so far after only a week on it I've not noticed any problems. In fact with the home monitor it hasn't lowered the bp at all. In another 3 weeks I have to go back to the doctor and imagine she will increase the dose, then it might be another story.
Although the official medical line is probably not to stop medication abruptly, I've done it several times with no ill effect, especially when the side effects were disrupting my life.
Hello Gardengnome42,
Please read the following information.
When you use your Bp monitor, always do this. Find a quiet time of day when you can sit and relax and listen to your favorite calm music on your own. Put your Bp monitor on a table or somewhere the same level as your heart and where you can press the buttons within your relaxed reach. Make sure the monitor can save at least three reading. Then put on the cuff, try to always use the same arm (left is best)and just relax and listen to the music, when you feel in the mood press the on button and the start button. As the machine is taking your blood pressure just listen to the music and breath normally and let your whole body relax. After the first reading is taken do not look at it, but instead relax and wait for a least a minute before pressing the start button again. and then again after at least another minute, until you have three readings on the monitor. Now go to the following free web site and follow the instructions to join and put all your three readings in. bp-chart.com/en/users/login When you next have to visit your doctor, you can print out all your daily reading and take this with you,that way your doctor will see how your blood pressure has been and you won't suffer from "White coat". Have fun lol Tim
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I really do feel so depressed about it. The dr didn't know whether to laugh or cry and neither did I. I realise some of it is white coat syndrome but all my efforts have only resulted in a RISE in bp, . 
High cholesterol in family question
Update on coming off statins after 20 years
Finally got LDL down below 70 mg/DL ( 1.8 mmol/L) 
Cholesterol rising after losing 2 stone!
Am I worrying over nothing? FH?