I would like to find out - is it neccesary to take medication for high
blood pressure?  Most importantly I want to find out: What does high
blood pressure do to you over time that would be prevented if you took
medication?  Can the medication itself be harmful? (Ref: I have
normally had regular blood pressure, but when I went to my new doctor
to get pain medication for searing back pain, she took my blood
pressure and freaked out.  She wanted to put me on medication and I
just flat out said no,  I am 23, I shouldn't need medications like
that yet!)  Thank you :-).

Pain and stress of a doctor visit can raise your blood pressure.  It
may have been transient.  You should have it checked out again soon
when you're not in pain and are relaxed.

Now to answer your question about the problems that hypertension (high
blood pressure) can cause over time.  Hypertension (HTN) is a major
risk factor for coronary, cerebral, renal and peripheral vascular
disease.  Sustained blood pressure elevation in clients with
hypertension results in  damage to blood vessels in vital organs, it
produces medial hyperplasia (thickening) of the arterioles.  As the
blood vessels thicken and perfusion decreases, body organs are
damaged; these changes can result in myocardial infarctions (heart
attack), strokes, PVD (peripheral venous disease), or renal
(kidney)failure.  (Ignatavicius- Medical-Surgical Nursing, 2002)

Some risk factors for HTN:  family history of HTN, high sodium intake,
excessive calorie consumption, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol
intake, low potassium intake.  HTN can also be caused by other disease
states such as renal disease, aldosteronism, pheochromocytoma,
cushings disease, brain tumors, encephalitis, pregnancy, psychiatric
disturbances.  Also some oral contraceptives can cause HTN.  If any of
these things are going on with you, it may be raising your blood
pressure.  You should talk to your doctor.

There are many drugs available for HTN.  They have different potential
side effects.  Diuretics are common drug choices and work by
decreasing blood volume to lower the blood pressure.  They tend to
make you have to pee more.  You need to have your electrolytes
monitored.  Beta-blockers are another common class of drug which lower
blood pressure by blocking beta-receptors in hte heart and peripheral
vessels, reducing the cardiac rate and ouput.  Common side effects of
beta-blockers include fatigue, weakness, depresson nad sexual
dysfunction. There are other drug classes used to treat HTN including:
calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, Central Alpha Agonists,
Vasodilators, and alpha-adrenergic receptor agonists.(Ignatavicius-
Medical-Surgical Nursing, 2002)

So you many be prone to HTN and it's showing up early.  The pain and
stress may have elevated your blood pressure temporarily.  I don't
know what the answer is    but you should monitor it with your doctor
to be on the safe side.  You didn't mention what your Blood pressure
was so hard to give you any specific advice.  If he 'freaked' it must
have been pretty high.  Talk to your doctor, or get another doctor to
talk to if you don't trust your current one.

You have provided some good information, I would have liked some
possible websites to look at for further research though.  Thank you
for your time. :-)

Maeve100-ga:

You need to return to your doctor (or go to another doctor) and get
this worked out.  There is no such thing as being too young to need
medication.  If you are 23 and have a blood pressure high enough to
cause your doctor to freak out, you need to be on medication, at least
until you and your doctor have figured out what is going on.

Without having every seen or examined you, and only knowing what you
revealed in your question, I can say that your story is EXTREMELY
worrisome.  Specifically, if you have having "searing back pain" in
association with extremely high blood pressure, you may have an aortic
aneurysm or a dissection of your aorta.  In layman's terms, this is a
weakening or tearing of the main artery that leaves your heart to
deliver blood to the rest of your body.  If the weak spot or tear
extends, it can rupture.  Then you would most likely die, and quickly,
within seconds, as your heart would then pump most of your blood into
your chest.

I don't mean to be alarmist, and I can't say how likely or unlikely it
is that  you have this condition, as I have not seen or examined you. 
But a 23-year old does not ordinarily have unexplained "searing back
pain" any more than they have blood pressure high enough to worry a
doctor.  If you came into my emergency room with this story, you would
have one large-bore IV line in each arm, with medicines running in to
lower your blood pressure, and you would be flat on your back inside a
CT-scanner with a surgeon waiting outside anxiously pacing back and
forth until the scan was finished.

Go back to your doctor, or to another doctor right now.  If you are
still experiencing searing back pain, have a friend drive you (do NOT
drive yourself) to an emergency room right now, as in right this
second, without delay.  If there is no one to take you, call 911. 
From a statistical perspective, aortic dissection is rare in a
23-year-old.  But there are hereditary conditions that make it more
common (Marfan's Syndrome, which is a disease the connective tissues
which is mostly asymptomatic until you suddenly die of a ruptured
aortic aneurysm, is one that comes to mind).

After aortic dissection has been ruled out, you still need to have
your high blood pressure worked-up.  It may be that you have a
condition that can be treated in some way which would cause your blood
pressure to become normal again, therefore obviating the need for
chronic treatment (and preventing the dangerous sequelae of untreated
hypertension: heart disease, stroke, sudden death).

Now a message to the Google researcher: by and large, when people ask
questions about medical problems, there is a disclaimer that this is
general advice which does not substitute for the specific advice from
a physician consulted for a particular problem.  You'd do best to keep
repeating that, and clearly.  Maeve100-ga may well have a potentially
fatal but treatable condition.

Good luck Maeve100-ga, and get this taken care of right away.

"I have normally had regular blood pressure"

This statment was in the question. If it's true, and you have home
measures normal and "medical measures" high, you have what you call
"white-coat hypertension". It's a condition where healthy people seems
hypertensive in the medical office. The prognosis of this people is
very good, without the complications of hypertension. The only advice
is to continue checking your blood pressure, because people with
white-coat hypertension are in increased risk developing hypertension.

Hypertensive people should use drugs, which are safe. Diuretics is the
first choice and they DON'T make you pee more! The main mechanism of
hypertension is sodium (salt) retention, what diuretics do is make you
pee this salt in excess, and them they MANTAIN it's level regular!

The biggest study for hypertension drugs is from National Health
Institute, they have a fact page for public:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/allhat/facts.htm

Ok, sorry for the long delay - and if anyone is still interested -
here is how it played out:

The doctor I had seen was incredibly unprofessional, and I question
her and her practice.  So I left her and found another doctor with my
HMO.  After two separate tests my blood pressure was well within
normal levels.  So all ended well :-).