I was diagnosed with HBP in February. Since it runs in the family, and I had been borderline for years, I wasn't happy but wasn't surprised. It was very high and took from February to mid-August until the dosage (ACE inhibitor 5 mg morning and 5 mg night) seemed to start working. I had a reading of 120/100 and six weeks later 110/80 at the doctor. At home, I have been running 110-118/75-85 fairly consistently. Suddenly, this week, I am running 132/88-95, and it seems to be getting higher each day rather than lower. I'm doing all the same things! While it isn't high enough to really worry me, it took so long to get it under control that signs of it going up again are concerning.

Is this normal? Do others have this up-and-down problem. The doctor did diagnose my BP as labile when we were trying to get it under control due to the fluctuations.

I'm normally at about 128/78 with medication. But if I go through a junk/fatty food binge, it will go up to 140/90. I go back to the BP friendly diet for a while and it comes back down. I guess everyone goes through it. There SOME reason your pressure goes up, you just haven't figured out yet http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/biggrin.gif. Mines is DIET. If my pressure goes up, I know to go back to thje orange juice, whole wheat stuff, non-fat milk, fruits and salads.

Catalina,

I think these swings are quite common. Mine was good til this week... now all of a sudden 145/95 WITH meds.
I'm just going to wait it out and not fiddle with dosage. LOTS of things will influence our BP unlike the medical model which has only one....a "DRUG DEFICIENCY." Unfortunately there's little financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to find out what these factors are!

I have an UGLY theory that I'm going to start researching about the body's getting ACCLIMATED to any one (or two or three) of these drugs and compensating for them by requiring constantly heavier dosage and more and more different drugs. I DO hope it's not true!

Thank you for the responses. It certainly makes me feel better. I did have two business trips in the last few weeks, one to Europe, so maybe it is the change of diet and stress of travel.

I think that our bodies do get used to medications, not just HBP. I've always had a problem on any kind of long term medications, they didn't seem to work after a while, or started bothering me.

Rmember Anxiety causes a vicious cycle..I would recomment that u do the following instead of taking isolated readings.

1.Out of bed before walking around
2.Arrival at office
3.Cofee time
4.After lunch
5.COfee time
6.Arrival at Home
7.Before bed

If u feel urself holding ur breath when taking the readings do this..keep taking the readings till the direction of the readings reverses. Ex if

Ist reading 138/85
IInd reading 124/80
IIIrd reading 118/78
Iv th reading 124/78

Then u should average last 2 readings.If conversely if subsequent readings increase then wait for the reading the goes down.Take reading is interval of 2 mins keep doing something while u wait for the next reading.This is a better way to take out the anxiety factor.

Well, after two - three weeks of higher blood pressure, even though I am on medication, I am back to getting normal readings averaging 110/80-85. I have no idea why I went up like that, but I'm glad I waited. If my meds had been increased I would likely be too low now. I will just have to monitor and see if I can figure out any pattern.

Thanks for the help. I stopped stressing once I realized it happened to others, though the blood pressure still didn't go down until two weeks later!