Brief Answer:
Information on high blood pressure.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

High blood pressure diagnosis is best diagnosed by taking 3 readings at 3 different times. Because some situations can cause the pressure to be higher. It's possible being sick might have done it, but it's important to follow up on this.

A beta blocker is one type of medicine for high blood pressure. There are other classes of medicines to treat high blood pressure too, such as ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and "water pills" such as hydrochlorothiazide.

There isn't one class of high blood pressure medicine that is best for everyone. Each class has it's benefits and side effects. Beta blockers have the added benefit of keeping the heart from beating to fast, so it is used for people with atrial fibrillation. But one of it's drawbacks is masking thyroid disease. An ACE inhibitor can be helpful for people with congestive heart failure. But it can cause a chronic cough in some people. So, you can see that each class of high blood pressure medicine has it's additional specific uses.

Often, when a person is first diagnosed with high blood pressure, and if the elevation is not severe, we start with hydrochlorothiazide. As some people can lose too much potassium on this medicine, I like to combine it with a medicine called triamterene. So the medicine is called Triamterene/HCTZ.

It can take a few weeks of daily use of blood pressure medicine to see how well it will work.

If your pressures are still high when the nurse checks you in at the beginning of your appointment with your doctor, ask the doctor to recheck it after you have been there for awhile or at the end of the appointment. Because people may have rushed in for the appt., or be a bit nervous at the beginning of the appt., it can make the blood pressure reading inaccurate.

I've found in many people with high blood pressure who drink alcohol, decreasing to no more than 1 drink/day, or if only drinking 1/day, eliminating it entirely, can greatly improve their blood pressure readings. Weight loss can also help, if excess weight is an issue. And of course, no tobacco smoking.

I hope this information helps. Please let me know if I can clarify further.

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Brief Answer:
Avoid beta blockers and thiazide.

Detailed Answer:
Given that you have diabetes, even if your sugars are under control, it would be best to avoid beta blockers and the diuretics in the thiazide family (hydrochlorothiazide - which may be the water pill you were given). Beta blockers in particular can increase blood sugars.

Here is an article abstract that you might find helpful:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/0000

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