I've had three doctors tell me the same thing. (Sorry about the earlier post about Isopril. The "brand name" drug is actually Prinivil!). All of them told me that a diuretic was not the way to go in my case. They said I needed something for long term, and an ace inhibitor was the recommended way to go. I was told this by my physician in Albuquerque and by my doctors here in Ohio. My father was hypertensive so in runs in my side of the family. He was on a diuretic and it lost effectivenss as time went on. He went through several medication changes over the years and was on an ace inhibitor near the end which was very effective in controlling the hypertension. My son, due to partially working kidneys, has chronic hypertension. His doctors put him on beta blockers (Adalat and some others). He had severe reactions from all of them, which got worse the longer he was on the meds. He was switched to an ace inhibitor with no problems. In fact he takes the same ace inhibitor as I do, just a different dosage. In my case the ace inhibitor was the way to go. I am going for another checkup in a couple of weeks so I will ask my doctor and see what he says about the diuretics. What I offered was a suggestion for netso to take up with his doctor. Of course medical opinions change over time. This is going to be interesting!
'bent Brian