As a patient with high blood pressure, you might find the discussions on the Fools Under Pressure discussion board of interest--

http://boards.fool.com/walmart-humana-001-high-blood-pressur...

There you will find several participants willing to share their experiences in controlling high blood pressure.

It is always a bad idea to discontinue taking your blood pressure medication suddenly. Doing so can result in a heart attack. It is better to discuss the issue with your doctor and then have him or her adjust your medications.

Side effects have been a concern with blood pressure medications as long as they have been available. Once people resisted treatment due to the side effects. But these days they have half a dozen major classes of such drugs. Usually it is possible to prescribe low doses of several of them to do the job without the side effects becoming intolerable. But also note that some on the discussion board have had some success with diet and exercise programs.

A book you may find of interest is reviewed here--

http://boards.fool.com/sheldon-g-sheps-mayo-clinic-on-high-b...