I have slightly high blood pressure and have bad symptoms from it. I get ringing in my ears and pressure in my head like a migraine when it goes up. My dr. put me on the water pill Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) and it has worked great for me for years. Even when I lost weight and was exercising every day I still needed it but sometimes it would drop too low so we just lowered my dose. Worked great.

My husband has high BP and takes Diovan with a diuretic in it. It's been working well for him but boy I can tell when he forgets his pill - he is cranky! He's lost weight and still works out every other day and it's made no difference on his BP. He still needs the meds.

BTW, it runs in both our families and we started taking meds for it in our mid to late 30s.