Why not just try them and then see if you have any side effects? No reason to just presumptively assume that you would? I can see weighing the pros and cons if it turns out that there are any cons…
I would stop well short of saying it’s a fact that lipid levels aren’t related to CVD…
Yeah, that’s what I said I would do. 
Sometimes I just hate that I’m 36 and on like 10 daily medications. :\ I’d rather not add others if they are not necessary, is all…
My family on both sides tend to die of heart attacks or strokes, so when my blood pressure was a bit high at one endo visit, I was started on an ACE inhibitor (my endo is a walking prescription pad). I try to take the smallest dosage I can get away with. Three pills a week and my BP is perfect. Same with cholesterol: when my lipids started creeping up (sadly, lack of exercise), I was started on a statin. Again, three pills a week and my lipids are perfect.
I’m not entirely convinced either is necessary. I’ve read seemingly valid arguments that higher cholesterol ain’t gonna kill ya, and seemingly valid arguments that both types of drugs can be dangerous. Which is why I take the minimum necessary. Sort of a Pascal’s wager. I have no side effects that I’m aware of.
@cardamom If I had to reduce salt to control my BP, I would just take more medicine. Quality of life, in my case, has some dependence on salt.
I am a salt lover too
However, I did go thourgh a transition as described by @Cardamom, and I think she is right: after the first couple of weeks, you adapt to new salt levels, and things appear to be the same as before—at least that is what happened to me. From a large user of salt, I became a small one, and I still feel that I love salt. YS(salt)MV of course.
I don’t use a lot of salt. But probably more than I should. My BP is stellar though, although I do take my fair share of BP meds.
I take both BP medication and statins.
I have had higher blood pressure since my early 20’s and the medication improves things. I assume this is a genetic issue. I have no real side effects from the BP medication. If I go off for a while, I notice the blood pressure creep back up. Keeping the blood pressure down helps preserve the things that high blood sugar can damage - like the eyes and kidneys.
I have taken statins since my early 30s. I started to see the cholesterol tests creeping up at that time (probably not helped by diet - I was travelling a lot in those days - or A1C which was probably 7.0 at the time). Since taking statins and lowering my A1C I have good results on the cholesterol tests and I continue to take statins.
I recently started to get sore leg muscles so I stopped taking statins for a couple of months to see if it was the statins or just life. There was no change in the muscle pain so I am pretty sure that the muscle pain was caused by regularly lifting heavy children, taking a few bad falls skiing, and generally living life.
The statin argurment that wins me over is this - As a person with Type 1 my cardiovascular disease risk is high. Anything I can do to lower that risk that does not harm me is a good thing to do.
I have had high blood pressure since I was 14 years old, I used to run around 130/80 normally, then would run higher with stress i.e. 210/110 (lesson learned, don’t schedule your flight physical the week of finals).
The medication works wonders, I now routinely come into the doctors office at 105/65.
If you are running moderately high like you are, you might want to take your blood pressure when you are under stress and see if you run higher then. If you do, I would show my doctor those results.
Salt, for me, has zero part of it. I have tried an extremely low salt diet and my blood pressure was unchanged. Unfortunately, there are often no easy answers.
I don’t think I ever get above about 160 over 90. Stressed is pretty much my norm. I experimented with a low dose beta blocker for a few weeks, but it slowed my heart down too much (into the 40s when resting) to the point I was getting lightheaded etc… wasn’t a good fit… I’d be willing to try something else
@Chris, what has worked well for you? I had the same problem when I was 14 too, but it somehow went away when I got to my 30s—I have always wondered if it would come back.
Hydrochlorothiazide has worked for over 15 years. Prior to that it was a low dose beta blocker.
Meh. For bp, I have been on about everything, since every doctor I have liked or disliked something about every one of them. “As a diabetic, you should be on a beta blocker,” “As a diabetic, you shouldn’t be on a beta blocker,” “You should be on a calcium blocker,” “You should be on an ACE inhibitor,” etc.
10mg Bystolic works well for me, and one of my endos doesn’t think the risk of hypo awareness is a problem since I wear a Dexcom. But every other doctor doesn’t like it. I am at the point that I don’t care what the doctors think. I know what works.
Amlodipine causes me to have edema and didn’t reduce my bp. I’m on a high dose of Lisinopril, and it reduced my bp from about 146/70 to 139/70 - so they added hydrochlorothiazide into the mix. Dunno… I worry about it being in the 130/70 range, but I guess it is ok.
I have mixed emotions about statins. I have had some cause headaches, some cause edema, and ultimately every vein and artery test I have had I get “for a diabetic of your age and weight, you have unusually strong blood flow and no buildup.” I’m not convinced they are necessary with no risk of heart disease in the family.
Just my $1.47 worth (it was long-winded, so it was more than $0.02)
I take a beta-blocker, but for tachycardia, not blood pressure, and for me, it actually increases my hypo-sensitivity, since without it I get too many false positives. Only a small percent of the doctors I’ve seen over the years seem to understand that whatsoever, but I long ago stopped worrying about their opinions on what definitely works for me.
The nice side effect of beta-blocker is that it has a mild anti-anxiety effect. I was in sales at the time and I loved that side-effect. unfortunately, I began to require a dosage that carried an unpleasant side effect for a man, and so I switched.
Mine got worse in my 30’s and then my cholesterol went crazy too. 35 was not a good year. I went from normal cholesterol to almost 400 in one year with no change in diet or exercise. Some days I really hated my genetic roll of the dice, then I met all of you and decided my roll was just fine. :-)
The biggest mistake I make on a regular basis is to say to myself “I will try their recommendation.” I find everything is much better when I don’t.
But then I sometimes forget to listen to what my wife tells me, too - and she is always correct in the end. 
This is interesting - I am curious why I had high BP in my early 20s - I expect it to be genetic but I am curious what the cause is.
I took a beta blocker for a bit but switched to an ACE inhibitor because the beta blocker made me a bit sleepy.
That is very true. I too noticed this benefit when I tried but the cons outweighed the pro’s.
Mine was genetic according to the cardiologists. There are some days I miss the beta blocker, but the con was, like you, just not a good way to live.
While I can’t prescribe meds myself, I’ve actually had clients who experience high levels of anxiety that seems primarily somatic in origin (vs reactivity to specific stimuli or worry-based) ask physicians for a beta blocker script (usually propranolol, an older one, which is the most psychoactive of the bunch, but not usually prescribed just for hypertension as a result). It can be a strikingly effective anxiety med, without the dangers of addiction/habituation of benzos. While some people can’t tolerate them (contraindications include asthma and hypotension; side effects include drowsiness), a lot of the very anxious people I’ve worked with tolerated low doses fine (I think for them, their sympathetic nervous systems were hyperactive, so a little sedation just balanced it all out).
I am reading this thread again, and I find it pretty amazing. It has, like many of our threads, a way to progress in spurts and springs, changing direction from time to time, then coming back, and going through incredible islands of arcane yet related knowledge that you would never think it would uncover. I love that. I like arcane 
Our forum is a great source of reading material!