Stress Center Peer Support

I have a comment and question. A month ago, mom was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She's now on water pills for the rest of her life. 2 of mom's sisters also have congestive heart failure. I've been reading and hearing from "professionals" that there is now a direct link between blood pressure medication and congestive heart failure. The explanation they gave made sense to me. The common link between mom and her 2 sisters is that they are all on blood pressure medication. Mom's no longer on it, but she's been on it since the mid 60's.

After hearing this and other things about other drugs, I'm nervous. My b.p. right now is 140/80. I was told that's not bad because of all of the stress I've been under for all of this year. The dr told me that if it's the same in 6 months from now, he wants to put me on b.p. meds. I'm overweight, but it's coming off now. I re-joined a weight loss place 3 weeks ago.

What are other people's opinions about natural vs. pharmacy ?

I know many people think that natural is not the way to go (vitamins and minerals etc etc), but I've been noticing lately that medical science isn't always right.

High BP (and its consequences) runs in my family. It can cause havoc, but with attention it can be controlled maybe with some meds or naturally. You are young (I'm in your mom's generation) so for you there are options, the meds being the last, in my view. Now I don't even take what I'm told to take. But I am extremely pro-active otherwise: good weight, good diet (low sodium, low fat, etc), exercise and meditate every day.

BP varies greatly throughout the day. I even have several monitors (cuff and wrist). Take it at optimum times when I'm relaxed. The key (check with your doctor) is to get enough good readings. I also get a urine test which I failed once but have passed every other time. Hope this helps.