Hello Sherry,

Even if you do everything right, you can still have high blood pressure (aka hypertension ! 

Look to part of our website to guide good lifestyle changes that can help your pressure here.  They include maintaining a healthy weight, lowering salt intake, exercise if you are healthy enough for exercise, and stopping smoking among others.

Oftentimes, no identifiable cause can be named for high blood pressure.  In some estimates, 90% of high blood pressure has no cause; these cases are said to be essential hypertension. 

When lifestyle modifications are not capable of getting your blood pressure to goal range (less than 120/80), then medications are appropriate to use to help lower your pressure.  There are hundreds of blood pressure medications;  your doctor can help you decided which is appropriate taking into consideration method of action, benefits, side effects and cost of the drug.

To your health,

Neil MD