Don't listen to all these quacks peddling their so called "medicines". As a holistic healer I've cured many of my hypertensive patients with a combination of garlic powder and colloidal silver. Docters of the medico-pharmaceutical cartell make their money by keeping you ill.
OP, have you done a 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring?
Asking because you didn't mention it, and that seems pretty important before going on blood pressure meds. I have white coat syndrome, and often get readings like 140/99 or similar at the doctor's office, but on the 24 hour monitoring going about my usual day, my readings were perfectly fine around 115/70 and so on.
Doc EF wrote:
OP, can you answer the following?
How tall are you?
How much do you weigh?
How many miles per week do you run?
These are factors that can affect your blood pressure significantly. Are you comfortable answering the questions?
I was going to suggest this but white coat beat me to it. Technically a blood pressure reading should be after 5 minutes of sitting in a quiet room. You need three high measurements on three separate occasions. If you sprinted into your appointment and got your blood pressure right after you sat down, that's an inaccurate reading. There is an entity called white coat hypertension as well, where as the previous poster alluded to, your blood pressure is elevated in the medical setting but normal otherwise. The way to figure this out is 24 hour ambulatory home blood pressure monitoring. the device is a cuff you wear for 24 hours and it determines if you really have hypertension.
The cumulative amount of hypertension is what is really bad. Having a spiked blood pressure here or there is not that bad. And when you sleep, your blood pressure should go down. So really what matters is your blood pressure most of the day and most importantly when you sleep.
Here is a link to the JNC 8 guidelines which are the most commonly used in the US for hypertension.