Newly diagnosed with high BP- just wondering about general do's and dont's

I’ve been taking 5mg of amlodipine for some years. I had a long talk with my excellent GP ( sadly now retired.) He told me that in my case there was very little I could myself to lower my BP. I’m not overweight, drink very little alcohol and follow a healthy diet. I do exercise but should do more. This was proved when I had an operation 3 years ago. I was told to take the amlodipine on the morning of the operation but not the following day as the general anaesthetic lowers the BP and mine was low that morning. The following day when I was still in bed it was very high and so I was told to resume. So I never miss a dose. Like many people I don’t like taking daily medication but have no choice.

I was on Amlodipine 5mg plus Ramipril 10mg. But after I started having Afib take off the Amlodipine because my lower legs swelled. Swelling went done. Doing fine just on the Ramipril had taken both tablets for decades.

Loosing weight helps a lot if you need to . And I cut red meat out of my diet but eat chicken and Quorn plus plenty of vegetables and fruit and pulses.

My GP told me to have 8-10 drinks a day only as when I upped it to 12-14 made my sodium and folic acid levels to low. Had to take folic acid for 3 months.

Exercise if you can doesn't need to strenuous. Walking is good but you need something to raise you heart rate. Marching on the spot of 10 mins is enough to raise it.

But the best thing is don't make a worry of it.

Unfortunately if the high BP is genetic, lifestyle changes can only help so far. I was reluctant to take BP tablets but if I don’t, it still goes through the roof. No problems with Amlodipine 5mg, while the 10mg gave me palpitations. The only painkiller I take is paracetamol. I’ve been on medication for the past 20 years.