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Hi @ladybugmg. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect where a large population of people interested in medical challenges share their personal information and experiences and help each of us find good questions to ask our doctors. As a long-time veteran of high blood pressure and its treatment, I found a lot of good information on the Mayo Clinic website. You too may find important answers on these web pages:
First is a good overview of hypertension and most of its variants: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/basics/definition/con-20019580.
More on your point, here is some information on contesting high blood pressure without medication: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/in-depth/high-blood-pressure/art-20046974.
My hypertension comes from a rare inherited kidney mutation and may not be of much direct application to you. We'd know better about that if you care to share a little more information on your situation. For example, what are the dosages of Atenolol and Lisinopril of which you are taking a half-pill each day? Also, what is the range of your diastolic pressure? Your age also may be critical, since current standards for somewhat older persons don't count 130-140 as hypertension worthy of treating with medication at all, but only (as you hope) with lifestyle choices. Martin
Replies to "Hi @ladybugmg. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect where a large population of people interested in medical..."
My physician had suggested that I might want to try eliminating the Lisinoprol which I did but my blood pressure went up into the 150's. He wanted to keep the systolic under 140 so I went back on it in spite of the side effects.
I recently read that drinking ginger tea could lower blood pressure so stopped taking the Lisinoprol four days ago and substituted ginger crystals after washing off the suger with hot water. It brought the systolic down to the high 140's. This morning I was able to substitute pure 100% ginger root tea with the results that the reading was 133/67(pulse rate 75). All the side effects from the Lisinoprol disapeared by this morning. I hope this information helps someone elsel.
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Thank you for responding to my query.
A little about myself: I am an independent, active 92-year old widow, living alone and still do my own housework, drive to neighborhood grocery stores, etc, and and also do errands so I am able to manage well. I live in a large home and walk from room to room frequently. I also usually walk 20 minutes a day, outside when there is no air pollution, inside otherwise. I also do deep breathing exercises a few times a week.
Blood pressure medications are Lisinopril 20 mg, 1/2 tablet daily, Atenolol 25 mg 1/2 tablet daily. The primary care physician suggested eliminatingthe Lisinopril but that increased the systolic reading. I also use three different eye drops to reduce eye pressure as I have been pre-glaucoma for the last 20 years.
The diastolic pressure ranges from 71 to 79.
When I am very active or stressed the systolic pressure can go to 150 but will often drop back to as low as the 130's after relaxing. Also if I iingest too much sodium that seems to raise the pressure so I try to control that. I don't eat red meat, only chicken breast and mostly fruits and vegetables, yogurt and other healthy foods.
I would appreciate any suggestions.