What to do when blood pressure suddenly increases?

I have a friend, 87 years old, whose ailments include hypertension and congestion of the arteries.
She sees her cardiologist once a year and he has prescribed a battery of drugs in order to control the hypertension, the cholesterol level etc. She leads a fairly active life considering her age, eats healthy foods, no smoking. Not enough exercise, but there is no overweight.

The problem that made me write this message is her complaints about sudden, temporary rises in blood pressure.
Her medication keeps the average blood pressure in check, although the level is rather high (170/90).

But occasionally there is a sudden increase. The blood pressure may peak at 240/170. The increase is associated with discomfort, sometimes dizziness.
These peaks, which usually last a couple of hours, can occur at any time of the day or night.

What should she do when this happens? Once, in a restaurant, she took an extra dose of nitroglycerine, but this was apparently the wrong thing to do: she immediately passed out and an ambulance had to be called.

In the view of the physicians she has consulted such temporary variations are a normal feature of her health problem and not something to be unduly worried about. No doubt that is so. But the advice to "relax and wait for it to pass" is not psychologically satisfactory.

We live in a medicalized culture and have been taught to expect a pill to solve acute health problems. The sudden blood pressure increases are rather unpleasant. It would be desirable to be able to do something to alleviate the problem. If not a pill, then perhaps something else?

Thanks for the helpful responses to my message!

I have forwarded them to my friend and she will look into the issue of securing a competent second opinion.

Titus Vespasianus

P.S. About overweight. No overweight when judging by appaearance. Se has assured that her height/weight index is within the normal limits as used here in Europe.

Dear Satoshi

My father has exactly the same problem and I'm wondering what was the responses to you in this regard.

I would appreciate your help in advance

Peyman

Peyman, welcome to the forum I hope you will find it useful. Please note that the posting you reacted to is several years old.