Has anyone dropped Diovan and done alright?

[mrmojo]

frank, my numbers right now are actually worse than yours, on average - you arent going to croak (at least not right away)

I have been keeping all my numbers in excel so i can analyze them, i use my handheld pc when i'm on the road & sync it with my office machine & keep notes about what was going on, makes it a lot easier to track

i figure i will be just like every male in my family, live to be close to 90 & die of a massive heart attack, i told my doc i though that was a good deal & he freaked out

[frank619]

90 is a great deal. Most of my relatives die in their 70s, but they've usually had enough anyway. Thanks for posting your numbers--it helps put mine in perspective.

[oceandreams]

Originally Posted by frank619

Lenin, good luck, man. I am on my second day without hctz and I don't feel a thing. We'll see. Goodness, I hope y'all are wrong about the effects of salt on us. I mean, teenagers practically live on salt and they don't have hbp. Maybe, its because they are passing it all to us adults.
I keep looking for a magic bullet, you know, that one thing that is really causing this epidemic: Stress, diet, salt intake, obesity, genetics, etc. I sure hope that we don't wake up one day and find out it is actually caused by oxygen or water or allergies.
Guys, Thanks for the comments on renin and the differences between blacks and whites in those studies. I am hispanic, so maybe I'll average the two and hope for a break. I'll pay more attention to the sampling in studies from now on.

"I sure hope that we don't wake up one day and find out it is actually caused by oxygen or water or allergies."


Hmm...an interesting thought. I have suspected that allergies might play a role in hbp. Whenever I have a 'spell' of hbp, I seem to also be having a particularly bad spell of allergies as well.

[frank619]

I am checking in with my numbers which ranged from 130/95 to 124/87 today. This is my 9th day without hctz and my 7th week without Pravachol. My heart did feel a bit funny at some points of the day. Like a pin ***** or something. But I've been under so much medication, that I expect some of this. I haven't been able to exercise the last 4 days, as the weather here has been horrendous. I have noticed that if i go too long without food, it seems like my bp goes up. I need to check on this with my bp monitor--say, note before and after eating, to see results. I have also noticed that my pressure in the neck area seems to come in waves. I've started keeping a food log to see if this pressure is food related. I've stopped wearing a tie to work and am now forcing myself to breathe through my belly with longer and stronger breaths. These might just be quack ideas, but I want to try all natural stuff before i break down again and run to the docs for more meds. I also got my medical records from my first cardiologist to see my progression under his care. It was awkward, to say the least. But, he is so med-focused, he just did not give me the impression that he was listening to my calls for less meds. We'll see how this goes. If anyone out there has any ideas on any of this, let me know.

[mrmojo]

I was (incorrectly) diagnosed with allergies 10 or 12 years ago when i was working in a grain mill - turned out my lungs were just coated with soybean dust

As a result my lungs dont work as well as they should, and it seems like when I am having trouble breathing, my BP is elevated, but I'm not sure whether the poor breathing causes high BP or if I feel short of breath because my BP is high

Last time I was checked, my lungs were working "within acceptable limits" but not as good as they should for someone as active as I am