Aspirin - Beneficial for Your Heart


by Shashi Agarwal MD - Date: 2007-04-18 - Word Count: 925 Share This!

As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. -H. L. Mencken.

A daily aspirin may prevent your arteries from getting hard. Hundreds of scientific studies have consistently confirmed the beneficial effects of aspirin in the prevention of heart attacks, recurrent angina, TIAs or "mini-strokes" and strokes. "It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions but hard to get one single remedy. " a Chinese proverb states. The humble aspirin may be the single most effective preventive remedy, especially when it comes to cardiovascular diseases.

Aspirin is the acetyl derivative of salicylic acid that is used to lower fever, relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and thin the blood. Common conditions treated with aspirin include headache, muscle and joint pain, menstrual pain, and the inflammation caused by rheumatic fever and arthritis. Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid , made synthetically now, was originally derived from salicin, the active ingredient in willow bark. The use of willow bark dates back to the time of Hippocrates (400 BC) when patients were advised to chew on the bark to reduce fever and inflammation. Acetylsalicylic acid is now the active ingredient in more than 50 over-the-counter preparations. Americans consume over 80 billion tablets of aspirin annually.

Half a century ago, in 1948, in California, Dr. Lawrence Craven noticed that none of the 400 men he prescribed aspirin for had suffered heart attacks. His findings never made the headlines. Almost 50 years later, in the July 20, 1989 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, results of an ongoing 'Physicians' Health Study' were released. In this medical trial, 22,000 male physicians, all in good health, were divided into two groups: half of them took a buffered aspirin every other day, and the others were given a placebo. After many years, it was seen that doctors taking aspirin had almost half the risk of getting a heart attack compared to those taking a placebo. The results of this study finally recognized the common household aspirin as an unique heart attack preventative drug. Since then several hundred clinical trials have confirmed aspirin's beneficial role in preventing heart attack and stroke.

A meta-analysis of 287 studies involving more than 200,000 participants at high risk for heart disease reported in the January 12, 2002 issue of the British Journal of Medicine found that anti-platelet drugs, like aspirin, resulted in a 25% reduced risk of a serious vascular event compared with patients who did not receive such treatment. Dr. Lauer and colleagues from the Cleveland Clinic reported in the September 12, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that aspirin intake reduced all-cause death by as much as 33%, especially in unfit people over the age of 50 and with pre-existing coronary artery disease.

Aspirin blocks the action of an enzyme called cyclooxygenase, thereby reducing inflammation. It also inhibits prostaglandins in the blood. Prostaglandins, are like hormones and act as chemical messengers, but do not move to other sites, working right within the cells where they are synthesized. Certain prostaglandins, especially the ones inhibited by aspirin, can trigger a series of events that cause platelets (blood cells involved in clotting) from sticking together and forming blood clots. Aspirin is therefore considered an 'anti-platelet' drug.

Groucho Marx once remarked that "A clown is like aspirin, only he works twice as fast" Aspirin may not work slowly, contrary to what Groucho thought. In October 1997, the AHA reported in its journal, Circulation, that up to 10,000 more people would survive heart attacks if they would chew one 325 milligram aspirin tablet when they first had chest pain or other sign of a heart attack.

"A wounded heart can with difficulty be cured." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. So do not let your heart get wounded, by taking an aspirin daily. Unfortunately aspirin is underused. Only 41% of Americans over 40 regularly take aspirin, a Harris survey reported in the May 2006 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Daily aspirin is recommended for people with cardiovascular disease. And for otherwise healthy, males over the age of 40 or females over the age of 50. You may consider taking aspirin at an earlier age if you have multiple risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, and elevated cholesterol levels and low "good" HDL cholesterol. If you suffer from diabetes, you probably should be on aspirin too. Your physician will be best person to advise you about your aspirin use. Recent research indicates an appropriate dose of aspirin is between 80 and 160 mg per day. A baby aspirin contains 81 mg.

Aspirin use is not without risk. Aspirin can cause peptic ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, and allergic reactions. During stroke, aspirin can increase the risk of bleeding into the brain. You should not take aspirin if you are pregnant, have ulcers or a history of a bleeding problem, are about to undergo surgery or are a heavy drinker. Children under the age of 18 should not be given aspirin if they are recovering form a viral infection such as the flu or chicken pox. This could lead a potentially fatal Reye's syndrome. For most people, however, taking aspirin is safe. . It is important to keep in mind that good old-fashioned measures like losing weight, exercising, quitting smoking, and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol are much more effective in reducing your cardiovascular risk. But taking aspirin does help. An old Greek Proverb said. "The heart that loves is always young." Modern medicine can now say, "The heart that is on aspirin can stay young." So take an aspirin today and live to see another day.


Related Tags: heart disease, aspirin

Dr. Shashi K. Agarwal is a Board Certified Internist and Cardiologist with a private practice in New York City and New Jersey. He is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Holistic Medicine and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.

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