Twice now I've stopped taking blood pressure tablets and then in a sense been forced back into them by family, because I have a young child - a teenage child. And I was in a sense black-mailed back onto taking these tablets by friends - close friends who said 'Oh no you must be more responsible'. 'Oh you know you have a child to bring up. Think about it, you know the pills aren't that bad'. But I have got this total gut feeling that as I am 51 and my heart's OK at the moment, and if I lose more weight, and lead a healthy life, which I do on the whole- can I manage without them? I've tried to talk to the specialist, last week actually, when I went to have a final check. He basically said 'If you had angina and you were in total pain all the time and your body went green you would take any old tablets, but because you don't get any symptoms you feel you don't need to take these. And this isn't a good idea, my dear.' So it wasn't really very helpful to me I didn't think.