Success Story: Sue waved goodbye to blood pressure medication

Sue felt fine. Two months later she was nine months away from coming off blood pressure medication for good. This is the story of how she got there, and what you can do if you’re in the same position.

Sue was persuaded by her husband to book an ‘NHS Wellness Check’ held in a local school hall, but Sue didn’t expect much to come out of it as she felt well.

The nurse she saw was thorough with her checks, taking Sue’s blood pressure reading four times, likely because she couldn’t believe what she saw. One of the readings was 202/82. The nurse insisted Sue booked an appointment with her GP immediately as she was very concerned.

Luckily, Sue got an appointment with the on-call GP at 5pm that day (a Friday). When the GP retook her blood pressure, it had risen to around 212/82.

The GP told her she should be in hospital with a reading like that. He was placated when she promised to take her blood pressure twice a day for a week and start the medication he prescribed. But Sue wasn’t happy about the idea of blood pressure medication for life.

As a Registered Nutritional Therapist specialising in cardiometabolic health, I sit with people in Sue’s position every week. They feel well. The number on the cuff says otherwise. And they want to know whether nutrition, movement and the right testing can change the picture, instead of just covering it. Book a free 20-minute call if that sounds like you.

Hidden high blood pressure

The diagnosis came as a shock. Sue hadn’t felt any symptoms. That’s the part most people don’t know: both high blood pressure and high cholesterol can be completely silent, and because they’re usually only tested at the doctor, they can quietly raise your risk for years.

Sue’s wellness check also flagged her cholesterol as higher than ideal, and the picture got more interesting from there. Blood pressure rarely travels alone. We see it most often in the same room as raised cholesterol, blood sugar issues and central weight gain, which is why we look at the whole pattern, not one number.

If you’re wondering what drives high blood pressure, here are some of the leading causes:

• Higher body weight (overweight or obese)
• Too little exercise
• High alcohol intake
• Smoking
• High caffeine intake
• Certain medications, including the oral contraceptive pill and NSAIDs
• Snoring, poor sleep quality and not enough sleep

For more on the overlap between blood pressure and early blood sugar issues, see our piece on high blood pressure as a pre-diabetes warning, and our overview of the blood pressure condition page for what we look at clinically.

It all started with determination

It’s fair to say Sue had buckets of it. Her goal was clear, and very little would get in the way. At 73, she wasn’t ready to ‘slow down’ or chalk things up to ‘getting older’. She had countries to travel to, friends to see and sports to play.

To start Sue’s work with me, we had to understand what was driving the high blood pressure. Medication was controlling the number, but it was a sticking plaster. To help her come off it safely, we had to find the root cause. That’s the difference between a blood pressure medication and a blood pressure nutrition programme: one manages the number, the other tackles what’s pushing the number up in the first place. 

Like with all our clients, we began by assessing Sue’s full health history and current symptoms, no matter how small. We reviewed her food diary and her recent blood test results.

The bloods showed slightly elevated cholesterol and low vitamin D, B12 and folate. Nutrients matter here because they play a direct role in blood pressure, vascular health and inflammation. We had to address these alongside the diet and lifestyle changes, not instead of them. If you’ve never had your full nutrient panel run, that’s often where the most useful answers sit, and it’s the first thing we look at on a Wellness Check.

Food focus

Sue already liked many of the foods that would help her blood pressure and vascular health. There just wasn’t enough of them in her diet to shift the needle. So these became the first focus.

By prioritising changes you actually enjoy, you’re more likely to stick with them. The wins build motivation for the harder changes that come later.

Some of the changes Sue made included:

• Increasing omega-3-rich foods
• Balancing meals to keep blood sugars steady
• Adding nitric oxide-rich foods to support lower blood pressure
• Removing fruit juices and improving hydration with the right electrolytes
• Tightening up her caffeine so it wasn’t pushing the number up
• Adding more fibre to her meals

Sue also added a 4-minute daily workout designed to support blood pressure and vascular health. It was easy to slot into the day, she enjoyed it, and it clearly helped.

Supplements needed

Sue’s bloods, plus her goal of coming off the medication as soon as it was safe to do so, meant a small targeted supplement plan was the right call. A few were chosen to restore her nutrient levels (vitamin D, B12 and folate). Others were chosen because the research specifically supports their use in reducing blood pressure.

Supplements are a huge market and a minefield. Some interfere with medications, others interact badly with each other. Get professional advice before you buy.

The results

Within 3 months, Sue had:

• Reduced her blood pressure considerably and was back at the GP for a medication review
• Dropped 10lbs (4.5kg) as a by product of the changes
• Felt fitter than ever, despite saying she felt great to start with

“I love the way Natalie educates me on how certain foods can benefit my body and overall health. I wish I had all this knowledge years ago.” – Sue

Coming off medication isn’t always quick. The doctors are understandably cautious. Sue had to wait for a new set of blood tests and an eye examination before it was agreed she could stop.

The new bloods showed her cholesterol had come down and her nutrient levels had come up. With a clean bill of eye health on top, the GP signed Sue off the blood pressure medication just 9 months after starting it (May to January). That’s the kind of outcome we build the blood pressure nutrition programme around. Not faster than the body can handle, but not slower than it needs to either.

Does Sue’s story sound familiar?

Huge well done to Sue. She keeps her health on track with periodic check-ins, tennis and squash every week, her daily 4-minute workout, and the dietary changes that started it all.

If you’re reading this with a recent reading you didn’t expect, or a GP conversation about going on (or staying on) medication, there are three ways we can help, depending on where you are: 

1. Just want to understand your numbers? Start with our Wellness Check. A one-off appointment to pull your full picture together: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar markers and nutrient status, with clinical recommendations you can act on straight away.
2. Ready for the same kind of support Sue had? Our blood pressure nutrition programme is the 1-1 root-cause work: testing, targeted food and supplement plan, and the medical review pathway with your GP. Built for people who want to be off medication where it’s safe to be.
3. Not sure where you fit? Book a free 20-minute call and we’ll work it out together. No pressure, no script, just a clinical conversation about your situation.

And if you’d like more outcomes like Sue’s before you decide, read Dave’s story; medication free at 69, after years of being told it would only get worse.