Hello and thank you for turning to HCM for health advice! The questions you are posing is a very interesting one: do we need to use drugs for controlling a chronic disease, such as the case with hypertension, or can we make it without using any drugs? I have to admit that I myself have been intrigued by this question. And, given that my field of expertise is public health and epidemiology, studying of risk factors and health lifestyles, prevention and health promotion, I will try to give you an honest answer about your problem. First, we have to admit that you are at high risk from Hypertension (high blood pressure) because your parameters are high (systolic pressure - 160 mmHg and diastolic pressure 90 mmHg). Among these two, systolic pressure seems more deteriorated whereas diastolic pressure is at the highest value of pre-high blood pressure or at the low value of high blood pressure category. Recommendation suggest you should take medication in order to control your blood pressure. But you have said that taking medication has had some adverse health effects on you and you don t want this. Therefore, what you can do is to try to lower your blood pressure through diet and a healthy lifestyle. You have to reduce salt consumption, coffee and tea as well as other blood-raisin foods such as fat, spicy foods and all food that contain elevated amounts of salt or sugar. You will need to control the calories you take through food each day and also engage in physical activity. Obviously, you do not need to quit all the tasty food that is out there. But you need to do this: if you now consume x amount of foods containing salt, spicy, sugars, fats, etc. then from now and on you should consume half of it (x/2) and after some time you can reduce it even further. Consumption of garlic is also very very effective in lowering blood pressure. If you are not a fun of garlic smell then you can swallow entire garlic cloves (if they are big cut them in half or more pieces and swallow them with water). These measure will avoid smelling like garlic. Also please consume a lot of water, between 1.8 and 2.5 litres each day as good hydration helps the body to keep normal blood pressure. Please keep in mind that this refers to healthy kidneys and digestive systems, so if you have problems with these systems please you have to adjust your water quantity consumed. Also, the water quantity should be adjusted to the physical activity carried out: when you work out you need more water and vice-versa. Also, drinking two much alcohol will raise your blood pressure but moderate alcohol drinking (possibly one or maximum two glasses of red wine a day) may help you lower your blood pressure, increase the good cholesterol (HDL) and improve your cardiovascular health on the long run. You have to quit smoking if you are a smoker. If you can t quit, then you might smoke up to 1-2 cigarettes per day and then quit for good. It is obvious that you should consume more fresh fruits and vegetables (green vegetables) and less processed food. All these measures, combined with moderate physical activity (it is important to not be sedentary but to walk or engage in some kind of physical effort each day), will hopefully help to reduce your blood pressure. But these changes will not happen immediately, and therefore you will need to continue taking some of your medication for a short period until the blood pressure has been reduced at least to 140/85 or even further. Lastly, lowering blood pressure in natural way is hard, but not impossible. It requires force of character and strong will because you will quit many pleasure of life. However, the good news is that you do not have to quit 100%, but to reduce the unhealthy habits you have maintained until now and then you will find the perfect equilibrium. I hope that my answer will be appropriate to you. I wish you the best of luck!