Hi everyone....just joined this Healthboard and sure glad they exist. Anyway until 3 weeks ago my BP has always ranged between 112/68 to 122/72. I am athletic and run 4 times a week averaging 3 miles a run. One morning while sitting at the computer I got light headed, sick in my stomach and just felt terrible so my doctor who saw me that day. When he took my BP it was 170/92 with a pulse of 110. He gave me an EKG which was fine, ordered blood work and put me on Atenolol 50 mg. A week later on my return visit my BP was 136/80 and blood work was fine except my LDL (direct) was 169. A year ago it was 67. Put me on Zocor (which I strongly objected to because I hate taking pills) PLUS Plendil 5 mg. He also put me on valuim to take to calm me down. I bought a BP monitor and now my BP is averaging 142/68 to 178/92. I had a kidney scan done and go back in 2 weeks to get the results. I hate the Atenolol as it makes me very hot then very cold. I feel so stressed out as I've always eaten healthy and taken care of myself although my genes are horrible and both my parents died from heart disease although I personally feel smoking killed them. Sorry this is so long but I just can't believe that all of a sudden I am on these meds and I'm so paranoid about running again. I'm becoming totally obsessed. Anyway thanks for listening.

Thanks Zuzu8 for calming me down (a little). I bought an Ormon arm cuff style unit and yes I sit straight, legs flat and even on valium my BP has been high. During my 2nd visit he asked if I was having chest pain and since I am always pulling muscles here & there I said on my left upper side below my shoulder it felt like a pulled muscle but at the time I didn't remember pulling anything. That's when he put me on Plendil and gave me a 2nd EKG which he said was ok. Yes we had a long talk about my lifestyle and he said that if I walked in there 50 lbs overweight, a couch potato and a smoker he would suggest lifestyle changes but since I am none of that the only way to go is medicine. He also said yes 5% is secondary and 95% is other and to keep in mind that my genes are not very good. I cut my atenolol to 25 and today half of that & plan on telling him in 2 weeks that I am not going to take it anymore. I don't seem to have any side affects from the Plendil. I took my BP at Kmart on that machine which showed 120/69 before this happened. I use to drink wine with my evening meal and now I'm so afraid to have a glass for fear of stroking out. I feel like I'm turing into a hypochondriac over this. Thanks everybody for listening and for the kind advice.