I have been very fit through my life, carpenter and fairly serious athlete, and had a tendency towards hypertension as well. At age 65 my blood pressure was in the upper 130s/80s or even 90s and my cholesterol was up at well. I had moderate to severe degenerate disc disease from S-2 through L-1, no intact discs and several simply gone, bone on bone vertebrae. Needless to say my conditioning suffered. After fusion from S-1 to L-4 and re-spacing to relieve stenosis of the sciatic nerves I hired a trainer, have been working back with weights, doing interval cardio (140 bps 5 min, back down to 115 or so for 5 min, several repeats) and doing intermittent fasting. Got the weight down 15 lbs, dropped bp 20 points, back to a resting heart rate of 45–50 bpm. Doctor wanted me on bp meds and statins, given that I was able to lower bp with exercise and diet alone I dropped the bp meds, took the statins for a month or two and then dropped them. Going to go in for another fasting blood draw and look for changes in the blood chemistry. Doctors prescribe the meds as a matter of course, given that most people won’t make lifestyle changes, and of course as a man, with a lifelong history of fitness and training, I have advantages in weight loss and training effects that many don’t…consult the doctor of course but never accept that you can’t change your numbers with some work.