It seems all meds have side effects to deal with if taken long term. I've had high BP for 26 years and in that time I've taken different drugs because eventually they either stop being effective or cause reactions. One in particular gave me a dry cough. I don't remember it's name. It was effective for about 7 years, then my symptoms- a tight throat followed by a dry cough began. This was challenging because I was teaching and forced to stop talking and slowly drink water for a minute to get the throat to loosen up. My doctor said this often happened after being on this prescription for years, so he prescribed a different one.