Posted on 02/25/2010 8:23:29 PM PST by neverdem
If you're taking a daily aspirin for your heart, you may want to reconsider.
For years, many middle-aged people have taken the drug in hopes of reducing the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Americans bought more than 44 million packages of low-dose aspirin marketed for heart protection in the year ended September, up about 12% from 2005, according to research firm IMS Health.
Now, medical experts say some people who are taking aspirin on a regular basis should think about stopping. Public-health officials are scaling back official recommendations for the painkiller to target a narrower group of patients who are at risk of a heart attack or stroke. The concern is that aspirin's side effects, which can include bleeding ulcers, might outweigh the potential benefits when taken by many healthy or older people.
"Not everybody needs to take aspirin," says Sidney Smith, a professor at the University of North Carolina who is chairing a new National Institutes of Health effort to compile treatment recommendations on cardiovascular-disease prevention. Physicians are beginning to tailor aspirin recommendations to "groups where the benefits are especially well established," he says.
Doctors generally agree that most patients who have already suffered a heart attack or ischemic stroke, the type caused by a clot or other obstruction blocking an artery to the brain, should take regular low-dose aspirin. But for people without heart disease, the newest guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force spell out much more clearly than before when aspirin should be administered.
The guidelines, announced last year, suggest aspirin for certain men 45 to 79 years old with elevated heart-disease risk because of factors like cholesterol levels and smoking. For women, the guidelines don't focus on heart risk. Instead, the task force recommends certain women should take aspirin regularly if...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Also on rat poison, but for afib, not stroke. I have a home tester and measure my INR weekly.
Am still around at 83.
I wonder if there is a correlation between aspirin and obesity - particularly childhood obesity. Children used to take baby aspirin for fevers & pain. Then about 25 or 30 years ago pediatricians switched them over to Tylenol. Considering the studies that show inflamation being associated with many diseases it makes me wonder.
Home tester? Where can I get one??! I can’t complain. I also work at my Dr.s office, so I get great service!
Got to love that rat poison!!
Got mine through my cardiologist. It's convenient in that I don't have to drive to the doctor's office, and gives a little tighter control of the INR.
OK so..... my father-in-law who had a quintuple bypass at the age of 75 has been on aspirin therapy ever since and he’s now 93?!! Are they suggesting that he, who has experienced a relatively high quality of life ever since that surgery, stop?!! Hello?!
You sound like my father-in-law. (same “case study” posted above... ;-)
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