Diovan and exercise

I'm a 57-year-old male. I have been on Divovan 160 for about 3 years now. Several months ago I started to have back pain and it has been increasing. The doctor took x-rays and cat scan and the reports said that while I have some disc degeneration in my lower spine, the films are virtually unchanged since they were taken 5 years ago. In other words, I should not have back pain - but I do!
Lately, the pain has gotten worse - so bad that I can hardly get out of bed in the morning. It is located on the left side of my lower back. I also have incredible gas and despite diet and exercise, which is now impossible due to the pain, I could not lose weight no matter how hard I tried.
In the last 6 months I have slowly transformed from feeling pretty good for my age and capable of an hour a day on the treadmill to feeling like a 90-year old man. Today the pain was so bad I had to book off sick from work.
I went to the doctor and told him about all the negative stories on the Internet about Diovan. He looked up in his medical journal and decided to take me off the drug. Instead he prescribed a new drug, Rasilez (aliskiren fumarate).
Last month I tried stopping Diovan for 4 days and experienced a significant reduction in pain. I had to go back on because my pressure shot up again. I hope this new drug works without side effects.
Would appreciate responses from any of you who have had success with drugs alternative to Diovan and also success with natural remedies.
Best wishes to you all.

Hello Everyone:
I've been on this stuff for about 2 weeks and I'm already experiencing all the side effects you people are. I am an avid exercise person and I've noticed my legs are aching and hurt and my lower back (on left side) hurts like heck. I'm thinking I'm done with this stuff. It's a new drug and someone else can be the guinea pigs. Pris

It is now day 8....unfortunately the blood pressure has rocketed up to 150/100 had to go back on the full meds ...........being tired isn't fun but 150/100 isn't safe to walk around with....very hard to sleep with a pressure pounding that high...hopefully the exercise 30 min a day will combat the tired and depression effects...then in a few months ill try again or a different med if necessary.....not looking forward to itching again either !

At the age of 36 this genetic blood pressure problem has become very frustrating ..all tests came back normal ekg, heart scans, kidney scans mri s blood tests so whats left they say Sleep Apnea could be the issue need a sleep test though to see ........have a good one all

Well day 5 off the meds......the Withdrawl the first few days wasn't easy a lot of sweating...errability etc but it seems to have leveled off and all side effects have lessened the reason why they haven't completely gone is because I am still taking have a pill a day which is 80mg instead of the full 160mg.....really scary part is pressure was actually lower with the lower dose.......its about 140 over 90 which for me is good and that was in the morning when pressure is usually the highest in people....for all I know I could be even lower later in the day
I am also starting day 1 of exercise I am hoping this will bring the pressure into normal ranges especially the bottom number 90 is too high still ..overall though I feel better today.......we will see :) hopefully I will not have to go back on these scary hypertension meds !

You are all completely 100 % right
I have a book here called the high blood pressure hoax
the lady that wrote it is 100 % right in her findings we are all living it !!!!
the list of side effects is overwhelming too many too list
I quit all hypertensive meds yes my blood pressure shot up rebound etc

but I can actually sleep and don't feel depressed and tired anymore

it may not be a good thing but id rather live with no side effects my skin is actually clearing up in 2 days from the itching, the nausea is still coming and going brain fog is clearing up as well as a ton of other horrible side effects for the first time i actually feel good .....in 2 years of taking these horrible drugs ,,,,,yes they are keeping us alive but in the long run they will kill us just as fast as the hypertension !!!!!!!!!! good luck with diet and exercise everyone I am starting it myself this weekend