Hey dmouse;
Not wanting to go on drugs for the rest of my life I decided to look at alternatives. There are some Chinese clinics in the town where I live so I tried one of those. They recommended a course of herbal medicine and acupuncture. I've had a few sessions and my blood pressure has dropped a bit - average 144/95 but I'm not happy with that. They tried something with glass bowls - acu-suction?
First of all I think it's great you would rather look into alternatives (cures) than drugs (masking problem). One thing to keep in mind is that holistic cures take longer to achieve, remember you got that way over time and it takes almost as long (but not quite) to undo the dammage. The main difference is you can undo it and the body can cure itself given the proper diet and nutrients.
Speaking of which here are some essential nutrients you may want to consider:
Calcium and Magnesium, Garlic (Kyolic), L-Carnitine, L-glutamic acid and L-glutamine and Selenium.
Some other very important ones are; Coenzyme Q10, Essential fatty acids, Vitamine C, Lecithin, Vitamin E and or octacosonol.
You can read more on this and other maladies (whipee!) in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1583330771/sr=1-1/qid=1155953977/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5392772-5221769?ie=UTF8&s=books
Prescription For Natural Healing by James F. Balch, MD and Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C.
This is perfectly doable and I wish you luck!