Any audiophile who is on blood pressure medication

As a pharmacist, I have really gotten a kick out of this thread. When you start talking healthcare, everybody has an opinion. Some of the anectdotal post here a hoot. What I do know about hypertension is that gone untreated over time, it will most assuredly shorten your healthy years if not your total years period. The single greated cause of hypertension is bad diets and obesity period. Get these undercontrol and 75 percent of the battle is won. This includes not only bp but high colesterol and includes type 2 diabetes. But we Americans love to take medicine. Do you realize if we took medicines at the rate most of world takes them , the drug companies would fold or at least be far less profitable than they are now.

Larry,
Tell us more about how we consume more drugs than other countries please. I'm a big believer that most doctors would rather give a drug to deal with symptoms than deal with the cause and eliminate the problem. That's how we deal with problems in the business world but we seem to have a different logic about health and doctors.
Many people believed the bankers knew what they were doing until last November!!! Wait till the world finds out about the health care mess.

Kltaki8.....I have been at this business since 1971 and have seen how the healthcare business has changed. We are basically a reactionary system. We in most cases react to sickness rather than being proactive before the fact. This is why we have basically bankrupted the healthcare system. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. Much like the financial system, it all comes right back down to the individiul. The system is a product of the individual. We can blame the banks, the insurance companies, the drug companies, George Bush, etc. but the real culprit is a lack of concern and stewardsip by each individual. We are gradually falling into a quasi-socialism that dummies down the responsibility of the individual. This has the potential of producing a lower middle class that while being in a majority will abdicate their citizenship do to the malaise and indifference a socialistic society produces.
If you think the banking and financial system is a big bite for the government, wait until they try to swallow the healthcare sytem

If you want REAL health care and have more than the run of the mill muscle pull, you will have to start paying the doc directly - out of pocket. The good ones don't take insurance. They don't have to as they have enough referrals to stay in business.
Free health care? You get what you pay for. Better get ready to start paying it yourself if you are serious about getting well.

Along with my meds that drag me down I have started taking naproxen, also known as aleve. This pretty much cures the drag me down effect for me.