27. Continue to take your high blood pressure medicine

High blood pressure cannot really be felt by the patient. It is a strong determinant of longevity and generally the lower the better if you want to avoid its complications. Generally, once acquired it is hard to get rid of despite your efforts. Diet and some exercise may help, but commonly you need to take medicines and continue to take medicines for your lifetime.

Too often, people fill one or two prescriptions worth of medicine for their lifetime problem and then stop. They do not feel any better so why continue? That turns out to be an error. They do not monitor their pressures and they slowly develop the expected consequences of damage to the heart, kidney and brain. Again, preventable, and, at this time, some of the common medicines are very well priced with minimum side effects, which is another health bargain. So, once diagnosed as having hypertension, stop as directed by your health care provider–not as self-directed.