Most home bp and heart rate monitors are inaccurate.  Why take pills when you can cure it with diet and a bit of walking?  The disease of western society is laziness in respect to not taking responsibility for your own health.

Theres also a lot of truth in the fact that people have been set up to fail.
I realise its not a political issue and that all successive governments have played a hand in it but the continued deregulation of enterprise has lead to a hands off approach to opportunistic business.
This may be fine to 'create opportunity' or 'give customers choice' but its a ham fisted way of letting companies churn out products knowingly to be bad for health.
In addition its only recently that initiatives have come into place (and more to follow) that brings education into the mix.
Quite how companies have been allowed to sugar up or saltify food to the extent they have and use the common argument that they are simply meeting a desire when really they are trying to beat competition.
Too many lobbyists dipping their saltified bread into manufactured sugar soup at the expense of the nations health.

That doesnt mean people have no responsibility, but they should have an easier way of defining what is and isnt good.
Pizzas in supermarkets that contain over 30 cubes of sugar cant be the choice that is good for us.

They are, just as supermarkets and processed food manufacturers are and all until recently have been allowed to hide away truths with the foods standards allowing a conflicting and confusing information declaration standard.
here is some tougher talk on standardising such information, theres been the interest in sugar tax and there is to come legislation on take aways having to give the same information as boxed foods.

"I should think that at least 80% of this forum are on Amlodipine"
Me to ...

just the two of us

Yep Amlodipine as well.

Beetroot juice ( a pint a day) will lower it. You p** bright red but it works

Each product that has high sugar or salt content, some of which exceed the daily recommendation with their product alone should be forced to have at least a quarter of the packet giving the same warnings that tobacco has.
Its all very well saying that you and I know and suggest choice is our societies salvation, when the truth of the matter is the very confusion is the opportunity business uses to make profit....profit from bad ill informed and addictive decisions on foodstuffs that have been created with repetitive sales in mind.

We need very much more of this.

.
http://www.heinz.co.uk/en/products/beans/ranges/healthy-beans/heinz-less-sugar-beanz

I'm devastated to hear about the canned tomatoes

I get thru loads of them, and not the Napolina variety (cos they cost a f*kin fortune). Are there any cheapo versions with lower salt ?

WARNING!

I was put on Felodipine for high blood pressure and ended up with periodontitis, which was quite a shock as I do look after my teeth. After noticing the signs I visited the dentist who originally told me that smoking had caused it but they got so bad he recommended a periodontist. It was here that I was questioned on the use of Felodipine where he asked if the issues began when the pills began; I couldn't say for certain but it was definitely close.

When I mentioned this to my doctor he took me off them straight away. Unfortunately for me the damage has already been done but I'd recommend that anyone on this drug keeps an eye on their gums to try to catch it early.

Another side effect is swollen ankles, although that tends to be seasonal and only came up in hot weather; I was pre-warned of this latter effect.