“How long should I take medications for high blood pressure?”

Take your blood pressure every morning while you relax, say at the breakfast table. I hope you eat a hearty breakfast with lots of high-fiber foods. Limit your daily salt intake. Try to optimize your weight and exercise regularly. A good walk, say 2-3 miles, is good exercise, so you dont have to swim 100 laps, climb a mountain, or run a marathon! If your blood pressure is consistently under 120, you can start modifying your BP med(s). If you take more than one daily, ask your doctor which one you can try stopping. Then, see what happens to your morning BP. If it exceeds 140, you must resume what you took. If you only take one pressure med, then try reducing the dose. Once again, see what happens to your pressure. If it goes up over 140, resume your previous dose. A couple of things you must get out of your mind. One is that taking medications is bad, and you should do everything possible to get off them. The other is that taking medications means that something is wrong with you. You should be thankful we have these lifesaving medications that help prevent strokes, heart attacks, and peripheral vascular disease. Please inform the prescribing physician of what I have written and what you do. I am not a substitute for your doctor!

Fo rthe rest of your life. There is no cure and the b/p goes back up as soon as you stop treatment. You have a new patient question! All you have to do is reply to this email