I am 73 years old. Some 30 years ago, my BP started going up, and I was advised to reduce salt. I did it and monitored my BP every day, and watched it go down gradually but steadily. and it stayed down for a few years. Then it started climbing again, and I started taking anti-hypertensive medications. I now take two different such medications to keep my BP within normal range, and I watch my diet. Eliminating salt from your diet is very difficult because so many things contain salt. It's not just avoiding the salt shaker and avoiding salt in the food you cook. Most people do not know it, but milk, bread and most cold cuts and cheeses contain salt. Meats and fishes also contain some salt. The only things that contain no salt are potatoes, fruit and veggies, rice, grains, beans and unsalted nuts. You can accustom your taste buds to "like" unsalted food and, after a few weeks, you will find even lightly salted things too salty and wonder how you ever ate them. Depending on your personal situation, you might make life very complicated for the people you live with. If you decide to embark on this low sodium effort, make sure your BP elevation is not so high as to pose a serious risk, because you could do yourself harm if you do not get your BP under control promptly. Another thing to consider is that some people with high BP have a form of the disease that is particularly salt-sensitive. They respond especially well to reduced sodium intake. If your illness is not of that type, then you will probably eventually find that sodium restriction does not afford you the degree of BP control that you need, and you will have to start taking medication. Of you can try calcium supplements, but they can be constipating. The cheapest and for most people safest starting antihypertensive medication is hydochlorthiazide (HCZT), which is available as a generic and costs less than $20 per month. It's a very safe drug, and you will probably not experience any unpleasant side effects. Blood pressure control is one of the few areas where the drug industry has succeeded very well. The available treatments are highly effective and extremely safe. You will hardly know you are taking any medication, and the "silent killer" can be kept safely at bay.

Thanks for the replies. I think you're right about just trying to keep things simple. Congratulations to your mom, Jen. I know losing more weight would help me, too, but it's not an easy process. I managed to lose 10 pounds last year watching fat and calories, still eating a fair amount of fast food. I went to CalorieKing.com, found the seemingly healthiest foods at our usual haunts, and made up a list of "safe" foods I liked. But I hadn't even looked at sodium content. Now I'm looking over those old reliables, and finding tons of sodium wherever I look. It's as if they know they are losing flavor using lower fat, and are trying to make up for it with more salt. At McDonald's, even their McVeggie burger on a whole wheat roll has 1200 mg of sodium! The low fat salad dressing I had yesterday turned out to have over 700 mgs, and the grilled chicken salad by itself had 800. I don't plan on giving this stuff up altogether, but I can sure see how careful you'd need to be to make up for just one fast-food meal.

I'm female, 5' 7", 125 lbs, my cholesterol levels are great, I eat healthy and work out at a gym daily. My BP was around 105/65 since I was in my twenties. Two years ago (at 52) I got a sore throat with swollen glands so I went to the doctor. My BP had gone up to 175/95 overnight! I know this because I check my heart rate and BP at the gym every day and it was my normal 105/65 the day before I got the sore throat. My throat culture came back positive for strep throat (which my doc said isn't too common among middle age folks) and I was put on antibiotics. The doctor wanted to wait until I'd finished the medication and the strep had cleared to see if my BP went back to normal. Unfortunately, it never did, and I had to be put on BP medication. My doctor thinks the strep throat somehow shocked my system and caused my BP to be permanently altered. On medication (the lowest dose possible) it hovers around my previous 105/65, but if she takes me off that low dose, it shoots right back up again. So I guess I'm on meds for life now. Just wanted to share that it's possible for BP to go haywire with a virus or bacterial infection and be unable to regulate itself back to normal afterwards.

oldgardener unfortunately that is definitely not an absolute, I and my mother experience the severe coughing with every type, some are rated as lower chance of causing it but any can cause it. Even the atenolol will cause me to cough when I have tried a stronger dose. I am not the norm, my doctors reached that conclusion pretty quickly, but they do try when new ones come out that are not a high coughing risk, I give it a try but so far no luck. Which will be bad if I ever had to stop the atenolol.