newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ANGELA DAIDONE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

For decades, baby aspirin – that which is usually 81mg in strength – has been touted as the best daily treatment for preventing a heart attack or stroke. And for decades, patients have heeded their doctors’ advice: nearly a third of middle-aged Americans regularly take a baby aspirin daily. But new research shows that the daily aspirin regimen may not be healthy for everyone and may, in fact, be doing more harm than good.

According to an article in the New York Times, researchers in London last week reported they had analyzed random studies of aspirin use of more than 100,000 participants in the United States, Europe and Japan.

While the study results showed that regular aspirin users were 10 percent less likely to have any type of heart event and 20 percent less likely to have a nonfatal heart attack, other risks outweighed the positives.

Regular aspirin users were about 30 percent more likely to have serious gastrointestinal bleeding. And although some researchers previously suggested that regular aspirin use could prevent cancer, the new data showed no such benefit.

For every 162 people who took daily aspirin, the drug prevented one nonfatal heart attack but caused about two serious bleeding episodes, the research determined.

Among men who have had a heart attack, daily aspirin use can lower the risk of a second cardiac event by as much as 30 percent. Research also shows that aspirin reduces the risk of a recurrence of stroke from blood clots in women.

However, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and other national health groups suggest a course of aspirin therapy should be decided case by case, and patients, especially those with family history of heart disease, should discuss the risks and benefits with their physicians.