High blood pressure I'm trying natural remedies to bring it down before I take tablets

Thanks for that I will book an appointment once my blood tests have been done tomorrow 29/11 I'm trying not to panic but I am taking it seriously. I think I'd like to find a reason for my high bp but I'm getting the idea sometimes or oftentimes there is no definite cause

I've had every test under the sun including kidney and brain MRI scans without a reason being found.

Thanks Paul hopefully be in to doctor in next few days 

Then they will tell him that it is the average that counts.

True, do you reckon its the peaks and troughs that are more important?

Yes, I can mostly tell what my reading will be from the way I feel. The consultant I see is more concerned about my lows as I get light headed and then there is a danger off falling. A friend who in my opinion is over medicated is light headed quite often and has fainted when waiting to cross the road a couple of times

Thanks Jane and Derek I'm hearing a lot of bad things about bp  meds which is why I would like to avoid them. I've been taking 3 readings a day. I'm gambling taking a few weeks to see if I can bring these numbers down before taking the tablets.

Diuretics used to be the first med tried but less so now. A lot of people find beetroot juice helps but I found it revolting and very earthy.

I tried beetroot juice too and found it disgusting Also it isn't sustainable unless you want to continue taking the beastly stuff. 

A friend of mine was put on benzofluoramine about 25 years ago and it was never altered until she developed gout. Unfortunately she is the type of person who never questions anything a doctor says and had she done so she would have realised that gout is a recognised side effect. 

For myself I refused to take a calcium channel blocker because of side effects and because you can't eat grapefruit. I like grapefruit and wasn't going to accept that! So I take Losartan with no side effects.

Regarding your highs and lows - how high is high and how low is low? I find my BP tends to go in waves and I can certainly tell when it's  low, especially in the morning as I have no 'Get up and go' and I generally feel lacking in energy. Whereas when it's high I feel so much better. I did comment on this to the dr and she said that it was normal for BP to be high in the morning, it was what got one going for the day. And typically she was happy with the averages.

I was given Bendroflumethiazide for the first time in hospital at 6am on a day when I was going to have an angiogram. I expected to going to the toilet all morning but nothing happened. I went for the angiogram at 1pm and then had to lie still with a young nurse pressing her hand in my groin. It was late afternoon before I passed anything. All it did for me was to reduce my urine output and give me a pain in the pelvic area. At the same time they prescribed Losartan and Verapamil SR. They were the only two BP meds to not give me side effects and I was on them for over ten years.

After going in to AF and having a second cardioversion I questioned if I really wanted verapamil as it slowed my heart too much and I was told to stop it.

Since seeing the consultant at the hypertension centre who thinks I am not truly hypertensive but just have peaks. My losartan was gradually reduced from 100 mg to 25mg. The reduction made little difference to my readings and this year he suggested taking the losartan on an as needed basis if I got a couple of very high days.

My record high? Probably 230/120 and low 57/47.

 

It sent itself before I finished and checked it here is the last part.

This month my highest has been 187/108 and the lowest 106/63. The highs are usually in the morning but can be caused by bloating if my digestive system is playing up and stimulating my vagus nerve and it triggers AF. I take something for my digestion and sit out the BP and it usually reverts to a reasonable figure. I’m happiest with a systolic between 130 and 140. If below 120 I feel light headed but we are all different. I used to take one reading three times a day and note the average over the month and it always was around 137/74. Now the consultant wants me to take four readings at a time three times a day. The ones he believes are where three of them are fairly close together. If there are wide differences between them he puts it down to my AF confusing the machine. Quite often I get several error readings in a row presumably due to AF. That has also happened when having a 24 hour monitor. 

I tried in 2011 to get on the renal denervation trial at Imperial college but was told that my BP was not consistently high enough.      

I met a woman once who went round industrial and building sites taking men’s BP. Her remit was only to advise them to see a doctor if their diastolic was over 90.