Managing high blood pressure

Agreed, get a "second opinion." Don't mess around with this as the cumulative effect of high BP are serious. Educate yourself! There is a lot of info on-line re: diet, exercise and the dangers of high BP.
I lost 15 pounds and started to walk/bike ride regularly (3-4x/week) also stay away from ANY processed food. Read the ingredients. Nothing should have more than 150mg. of sodium. This will exclude nearly all packaged food. Sort of a bummer, but cooking your own food helps you loose weight (if needed) and empowers you to take charge of your life (something we all need to feel right now!). Remember, when you eat out it is nearly impossible to eat a low salt diet, especially fast food.
Even with salads, the dressing will kill it. Try fresh lemon juice instead. Don't give up, you can do it!

your salvation is in some form of exercise, with intensity and regularity.

I was thinking the same thing. I just changed my heart doctor and love then new one. My nephrologist recommended him.

Have you considered taking BP medicine in two half doses twice a day? In other words, if you are prescribed, say, 100 mg of a medication, then take 50 mg in the morning and then 50 mg before bed. This works for me as I seem to metabolize the medication quickly so that it doesn't remain in my blood stream for 24 hours.
Are you staying hydrated during the night? There's information on the web about dehydration affecting your kidneys causing them to retain salt thus raising your BP.

Welcome @kerrvu and @rbb1938 to Mayo Clinic Connect. Would you care to share a bit more about yourselves?

@kerrvu, besides medication, what are other approaches that you use to manage high blood pressure?

@rbb1938, what exercise or physical activity do you prefer? Have you also made dietary changes to help manage high blood pressure?

Hi Everyone, My husband (age 76) has great blood pressure during the day 120/70/60 and at 7pm. However, by 10 pm it's 160 and at 11 when he is about to go to bed, it's 180 or 200. His cardiologist is trying different meds but the only one that helps is clonidine. It seems like what you are going through. He just had a pacemaker put in and I was wondering if it could be related. Our cardiologist wants him to stay on his new meds (carvediol and amlodiine and still lisinopril) for 2 more weeks and see if they kick in. He is to monitor his BP and take the clonidine when it goes above 155 (systolic). He had emergency pacemaker surgery 4 weeks ago so we are in touch with both cardiologists. The pacemaker is working well as they just tested it and he has a machine that sends the information to the office. It's very scary. Thanks for all your help and or comments.

Is using Calis to normalize my blood pressure instead of prescribed medication, OK?

@rufus2752 Welcome to Connect. This a place where we can share our experiences, but like you, we are patients, and only a medical professional can determine what is right for you. Blood pressure can become a serious issue if it goes on too long, so you really need a doctor's advice on that. It is too important to experiment with, but what you can do is to buy an automatic blood pressure monitor and periodically check your blood pressure and write it down with date and time. That will give your doctor good information to help you. Blood pressure is affected by stress, and some patients are stressed seeing a doctor about it, so the doctor gets high readings, but the patient gets lower readings at home. Blood pressure is also variable and your body has to compensate for when you stand up and all the blood starts to drain toward your feet or during exercise when your body is asking for more oxygen carried by the blood. You can lower blood pressure with relaxation listening to soothing music and taking deep slow breaths.

It is always a good idea to discuss any medication you wish to discontinue with your provider who prescribed it. Sometimes there are other medications that can work just as well, so if you are having side effects from a medication, you can always ask your doctor or a pharmacist about it. If you want to avoid medications, you may want to consult a functional medicine doctor ( or an environmental medicine doctor) because their focus is to prevent problems rather than treat problems that happen.

Would you like to search for a functional specialist? If so, you may use this link and the provider search button is at the top right.
https://www.aaemonline.org/

Hi @rufus2752, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @jenniferhunter. There is also another older discussion that you may find helpful -- Managing high blood pressure: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/good-day-i-just-signed-on-with-mcconnect-though-i-have-been-using/

By Calis, are you referring to a supplement? Or something else?
As Jennifer said, if you have been diagnosed with high blood pressure (also called hypertension) it is important to keep it well-controlled, whether by medication or by lifestyle, diet & exercise changes. Uncontrolled it can lead to many very bad health issues - heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Until it is very high, it doesn't have symptoms, so monitoring is very important.
Have you seen a doctor and been prescribed medication?
Sue