Safety alert
date: 5/16/2005
Preventive aspirin
Forgetting or stopping daily aspirin can cause a rebound in risk. Find out why forgetting your daily preventive aspirin can triple your risk of stroke in just one month.
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Here's important news for the millions of adults who take a daily baby aspirin to protect them from heart attack and stroke. Discontinuing the medication because of pending surgery, bleeding, or just forgetting or deciding to stop, can create a kind of rebound effect--raising the risk of the very conditions the drug is supposed to prevent.
In a study of more than 600 stroke and heart-attack survivors, presented at the February 2005 meeting of the American Stroke Association, Swiss researchers found that those who stopped taking their aspirin had triple the risk of having a stroke within the month, compared with those who stayed on aspirin. That bolsters earlier research linking aspirin withdrawal to a strongly increased risk of second heart attacks.
Researchers surmise that stopping aspirin not only eliminates its protective benefits but may also elevate risk beyond original levels by making platelets more likely to form clots. Earlier studies have similarly suggested a rebound in cardiovascular risk after stopping cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
Those findings highlight the importance of strictly adhering to your aspirin regimen, even if you've never had a heart attack or stroke. If your doctor or dentist advises you to stop taking aspirin before a surgical procedure, ask whether the risk of bleeding outweighs the risk of discontinuing the aspirin.
If you need to stop, do so as briefly as possible. If you experience gastrointestinal bleeding, talk to your doctor about switching to another blood thinner.
Other news about preventive aspirin:
Take care with other pain relievers: Ibuprofen and possibly other pain drugs may undermine aspirin's ability to fend off heart attack and stroke. If you're on low-dose aspirin therapy and need pain relief, acetaminophen (Panadol, Tylenol) is a safe first choice. If that doesn't help, you can consider very occasional use of ibuprofen or other pain relievers, but take them at least two hours after your daily aspirin.
Younger women may not benefit: A new large clinical trial from researchers at Harvard University has found that preventive aspirin may not offer women under 65 the same protection from first heart attacks as it does for men. However, aspirin cut the risk of a first ischemic (clot-related) stroke, the most common kind, by 24 percent among all women--a benefit not seen in men. Most women younger than 65 probably don't need daily aspirin. However, those with very elevated heart or stroke risk may decide with their doctors to use it anyway, despite this study. Note that women and men of any age who have already had a heart attack or stroke should be taking daily aspirin or another blood thinner.
In a study of more than 600 stroke and heart-attack survivors, presented at the February 2005 meeting of the American Stroke Association, Swiss researchers found that those who stopped taking their aspirin had triple the risk of having a stroke within the month, compared with those who stayed on aspirin. That bolsters earlier research linking aspirin withdrawal to a strongly increased risk of second heart attacks.
Researchers surmise that stopping aspirin not only eliminates its protective benefits but may also elevate risk beyond original levels by making platelets more likely to form clots. Earlier studies have similarly suggested a rebound in cardiovascular risk after stopping cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
Those findings highlight the importance of strictly adhering to your aspirin regimen, even if you've never had a heart attack or stroke. If your doctor or dentist advises you to stop taking aspirin before a surgical procedure, ask whether the risk of bleeding outweighs the risk of discontinuing the aspirin.
If you need to stop, do so as briefly as possible. If you experience gastrointestinal bleeding, talk to your doctor about switching to another blood thinner.
Other news about preventive aspirin:
Take care with other pain relievers: Ibuprofen and possibly other pain drugs may undermine aspirin's ability to fend off heart attack and stroke. If you're on low-dose aspirin therapy and need pain relief, acetaminophen (Panadol, Tylenol) is a safe first choice. If that doesn't help, you can consider very occasional use of ibuprofen or other pain relievers, but take them at least two hours after your daily aspirin.
Younger women may not benefit: A new large clinical trial from researchers at Harvard University has found that preventive aspirin may not offer women under 65 the same protection from first heart attacks as it does for men. However, aspirin cut the risk of a first ischemic (clot-related) stroke, the most common kind, by 24 percent among all women--a benefit not seen in men. Most women younger than 65 probably don't need daily aspirin. However, those with very elevated heart or stroke risk may decide with their doctors to use it anyway, despite this study. Note that women and men of any age who have already had a heart attack or stroke should be taking daily aspirin or another blood thinner.