People should continue taking low-dose aspirin therapy for heart health despite a new study that calls the practice too risky, a top cardiologist tells Newsmax Health.
“The heart attack death rate in the U.S. has continued to decline considerably, and one of the chief reasons for this is aspirin therapy – so don’t throw away your aspirin,” says Chauncey Crandall, M.D., director of preventive medicine at the world-renowned Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic.
In the study, researchers said that many people taking daily aspirin should not. This is because their odds of suffering a first-time heart attack or stroke were found not to be enough to outweigh the risks of daily aspirin use. Researchers cited concerns that aspirin can cause serious gastrointestinal bleeding or hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain).
But Dr. Crandall said that in real-life settings, daily aspirin rarely causes problems. In fact, in his 30 years of cardiology, he has never had a patient suffer serious ill effects. “In my experience, I have never had a problem with complications from low-dose aspirin, so I continue to recommend people take aspirin,” said Dr. Crandall, the author of the No. 1 Amazon bestseller The Simple Heart Cure.
“In a rare case, I have seen bruising in people who take aspirin with other blood thinners, such as fish oil, but that is very rare and in such cases, I have the person cut back on the fish oil,” added Dr. Crandall, who writes the Heart Health Report monthly newsletter.
“And it’s not only heart disease – daily aspirin therapy has been linked to the prevention of some forms of cancer, particularly esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, and especially colon cancer,” he said.
“Studies like this latest one confuse people. The bottom line is that heart attacks are caused by blood clots and aspirin is a blood thinner. Daily low-dose aspirin therapy is one of the best ways we have to prevent heart attacks.”
People over 50 who eat healthy diets, exercise, and meet their target numbers for heart disease risk factors might not need aspirin therapy. “Those people are very few and far between,” said Dr. Crandall.
These are Dr. Crandall’s recommendations for aspirin therapy:
· All men over the age of 45 and all women over the age of 50 should take a low-dose (81 mg) aspirin daily. If they don’t have heart disease, they could cut back to taking aspirin every second or third day, because the medication’s blood thinning effect lasts that long.
· People with diagnosed heart disease should take a low-dose aspirin daily.
· People over 85 should discuss discontinuing daily aspirin therapy with their doctor. They metabolize drugs more slowly, and have thinner stomach linings, which puts them at greater risk for bleeding.
· Take aspirin in the morning. That’s when most heart attacks occur. It’s best taken on a full stomach, after breakfast.
· If you take a blood thinner like Coumadin (warfarin), or Plavix (clopidogrel), or one of the newer anticoagulants, like Effient (prasugrel), Pradaxa (dabigatran), Xarelto (rivaroxaban), or Eliquis (apixaban), talk to your doctor before you start taking aspirin regularly.
· Before a plane flight, long car trip, or other situation where you’ll be seated for an extended time, take one regular (325 mg) aspirin the day before you go. This can prevent a blood clot from forming in the legs, a condition called deep vein thrombosis, which can be deadly.
· If you think you could be having a heart attack, chew (don’t swallow) two regular (325 mg) aspirin. Uncoated aspirin is best, but use any kind you have on hand. If you only have low-dose aspirin, chew five.
· Most people can take aspirin safely, but if you are undergoing chemotherapy or have a blood disorder, taking aspirin regularly may not be safe. Check with your doctor first.
· If you can’t take aspirin because you are one of the rare people who are allergic to it, take fish oil to thin the blood or nattokinase, an enzyme extracted and purified from a Japanese food called nattō. Ask your doctor or alternative medicine practitioner about it.
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