High Blood Pressure Support Group

If your blood pressure runs 180/90 I would go ahead and take the meds and do what you can in the natural to help get it down, such as diet, excerise, etc. Just because you start taking the meds doesn't mean you will always be on them. There are natural ways to get it lower but soemtimes these things take awhile and you need to get it lower now.

I take Norvasc which has helped, but is very mild and doesn't interact with the many other drugs I am on. I already eat well, lost 80 lbs, exercise daily, so no fix there for me. I have a theory about stress, though, learning to relax, depend upon God instead of thinking I have to do everything and be so self-important. Learning to take life a little slower is necessary, but I have been so worked up about so many health issues. Now that I have some of them under control, I am hoping the blood pressure will not need the artificial help from a daily pill.

One high blood pressure reading does not high blood pressure make! There are any number of reasons why your bp was that high at that moment - do you have a bp machine? Make a journal of your bp for a week or two, at a couple of times a day. Then you will get a better picture of what your bp truly is.

We are not machines! Our bp changes all day long - depending on what we eat, what we're doing, and whether we're anxious.

I agree with Valp. Unfortunately, my bp has spiked again, and I do have a monitor do it early in the morning, and other times and it is just not coming down. I was hoping it was just the water retention from the Valtrex I take for shingles, but I am almost off and no change.

Yesterday I watched a video someone posted on an RA site, and it said that heart and blood pressure issues are common in people with RA. Whether it is inflammation of the heart, veins and arteries or a side effect of the biologics and dmards is not yet known because these drugs are so new and the long term effects have not been assessed. I don't think I could go off them anyway, because I can't take the pain.

Shortened life span due to RA. I wish I had been treated more aggressively initially, that seems to be the only thing that helps according to the studies, and I was just ignored the first 5 years till I started complaining. So time to get more aggressive with high blood pressure I get. It's just all the side effects and interactions I don't like.

Acupuncture took my bp from a normal reading of 140/90, with a high of 190/115, to 110/68 in 2 visits. Now I do the natural cures to keep it down.