I had a blood pressure reading of 174/104 today. The doctor told me I was a prime candidate for a stroke.?

I'm 49 years old, full of stress, dirt poor, with no job and very little money for medications. Do you know of any cheap ways to reduce blood pressure and avoid a stroke? I don't smoke. I've stopped drinking. My main concern is stress. Just can't seem to stop worrying about everything. My wife is ill, the kids are going hungry and I'm growing too weak to do anything much to help. All answers appreciated.

Hey my friend
first of I am sorry to read you are having such a hard time with what is going on in your life right now, but hang in there.
You have many good answers so I hope mines will help as well.
Trying to reduce stress is stressful in it's self, but we can do it. Go for short quiet walks, listen to slow or even sad love songs this will bring you down into a quiet place with in your self, the key is quiet. while in this state of mind close your eyes and take a few deep breaths this will help to lower your heart rate in turn helping to lower your blood pressure, but this is only part of it. Exercise is a must with a healthy lower fat and low salt diet is the other part to lowering your blood pressure. You see it doesn't really take a lot of money to get healthy it just take time and effort. If you are over weight diet and exercise will also help you to lose and that is even better for your all a round health. Taking aspirin will not lower your blood pressure it will just thin your blood, it will help it get threw the body easier, but if you are not careful with aspirin it can cause you even more problems. Aspirin not only thins your blood, but it also thins the walls of your stomach, if you have ulsters this could and does cause them to bleed, thin blood would be bad once your ulsers start to bleed.
So I would say just go with the diet and exercise the quiet time, the walks and the slow and soft sad music with the deep breathing, control your food in take and your thought pattern and you should be fine....Maybe this will help you until you get back to work and have more resources inableling you to afford to go to the doctor and get the high blood pressure medicine, but by then you may not need it....
Good luck to you and hang in there and it will all work out.
Take care and Keep the Faith....Peace....cya....

If your doctor writes you a prescription, you can most likely get it filled at Wal Mart for $4. They have many common blood pressure medications on their $4 prescription list.

Additionally, if you start exercising, your blood pressure would likely decrease significantly. Reduce your sodium intake and caffeine intake.

Your doctor's wrong, and there's almost nothing unusual about your BP readings. You're NOT a "prime candidate for a stroke"

Another horse's backside of a doctor told me exactly the same. That was 15 years ago,...
Now he's dead (heart attack) several years ago, --- and I'm still here aged 81 yesterday with BP of 195/105 .... going great guns.. (He was 20 years younger than me).
Relax, lighten up, and live every day with fun. Don't take the tablets...

Take 'aspirin'. Expensive, but it will get rid of the weakness for you. Plus, stress just gives you a better chance of stroke. so if you want to get rid of this, just sit everyday in silence away from everyone for at least 30 minutes. AND DON'T THINK. It's the best way to actually stop stress.

Exercise would help lower both the stress and the blood pressure, but start slowly by just walking or easy cycling at first, until you get accustomed to it.

Stress can sap your energy, so hopefully controlling it will help you get through this.

Go for walks, eat low fat, no red meat, don't eat before bed, find a free clinic in your area. The county hospital has programs for people with no insurance.