Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] I am 39yrs old, and my blood pressure has hovered around 150/105 (pulse 61-75) for the past 3 days. I was on 20mg of Benicar HTC, 4 months ago, but stopped taking it due to excessive water retention. My DR prescribed water pills that lower BP and bloating, but that didn t do much for the water retention. To combat having to take pills for BP I have dropped 22lbs in the past 2 months and have a regular exercise regime, and eat practically a zero salt diet - but still don t see much of a difference for BP. High blood pressure is in my family, but never effected me until I gained 50lbs over the course of the last 5 years - I always had 120/80 prior.
[|AI|]  Hi Their have read the details provided by you which gives a clear idea that hypertension runs in your family. Also in general one of the strongest etiology for high blood pressure is genetics which is there in your case.It's good to hear that you have a strong will power, and you are already on lifestyle modification from the last 2 months which is first line treatment of High BP although its has not benefited you much till now. So now what you can do is that just continue this lifestyle for another one month and still your BP does not show any improvement then we need to start you on proper antihypertensive meds along with the lifestyle changes. And also get an ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY done in the meantime to check your LV function and to assess the thickness of LV musculature, so that the meds can be planned accordingly. And please don't make up your mind that you don't want to take meds as they are going to protect you against the harms of high BP (for e.g. Stroke, MI, Cardiac dysfunction etc.). One more important thing if you smoke please stop it as soon as possible. Good Luck