Daily Aspirin Regimen
Our mission is to provide help with your Low Dose Aspirin Regimen heart-health information to all potential heart disease sufferers seeking aspiring therapy for good circulation and good heart health...
Medical Researchers Discover a Daily Daily Aspirin Regimen can be excellent long-range heart-health therapy...
A low dose aspirin can help stop a heart attack or make heart attacks less severe without serious side-effects as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association and many other reliable health resources.
A regular low dose aspirin is a wonder drug for heart and circulation health as a long-range treatment option.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association.
Does daily aspirin regimen help lower risk of heart attack & stroke?
If you had a heart attack or you are at risk for having a stroke, ask your doctor if going on a daily aspirin regimen will help avoid another heart attack or having a stroke
Taking aspirins occasionally for headaches, fever or body aches is safe for most people.
Why does aspirin prevent a heart attack or stroke?
Aspirin interferes with your blood's clotting action. When you bleed, your blood's clotting cells, called platelets, accumulate at the site of your wound. The platelets help form a plug that seals the opening in your blood vessel to stop bleeding.
However, this clotting can also happen within the vessels that supply your heart and brain with blood. If your blood vessels are already narrowed from atherosclerosis — the accumulation of fatty deposits in your arteries — a blood clot can quickly form and block the artery. This prevents blood flow to the heart or brain and causes a heart attack or stroke. Aspirin therapy reduces the clumping action of platelets — possibly preventing heart attack and stroke.
Should I go on a daily aspirin regimen?
Going on a daily aspirin regimen depends on your risk of heart disease and stroke. Below are the risk factors for having a heart attack or stroke:
- High blood pressure
- Smoking tobacco
- Lack of exercise
- Diabetes
- Stress
- High blood pressure
- Total cholesterol level of 240 mg/dL or higher
- Low-density lipoprotein, which is "bad" cholesterol level of 130 mg/dL (3.68 mmol/L) or higher
- Drinking 2 alcoholic drinks daily for men and 1 for women
- Family history of heart attack or stroke
If you've already had a heart attack or stroke, your doctor probably talked to you about going on a daily aspirin regimen to prevent another heart attack or stroke.
If your risk factors are high, but have not had a heart attack or stroke, you may benefit from going on a daily aspirin regimen. However, discuss with your doctor if it's safe taking aspirin daily.
Below are some conditions that may prevent you from starting a daily aspirin regimen:
- A bleeding or clotting disorder
- Asthma
- Stomach ulcers
- Heart failure
It's also important to tell your doctor what other medications or supplements you area taking, even if it's just ibuprofen. Taking aspirin and ibuprofen together reduces beneficial effects of the aspirin. Taking aspirin with other anticoagulants, such as warfarin (Coumadin) could greatly increase your chance of bleeding.
What's the best dose of aspirin to take?
Discuss with your doctor what dose of aspirin is right for you. Some studies have shown that low doses of aspirin — 75 milligrams, is less than a standard baby aspirin — can be effective. Your doctor may prescribe a daily dose anywhere from 81 mg — the amount in a baby aspirin — to 325 mg, which is a regular strength of aspirin.
Any Risks if I stop taking aspirin every day?
While you might know that taking daily aspirin helps prevent additional heart attacks or strokes, you might be surprised to learn that stopping daily aspirin therapy can have a rebound effect that may increase your risk of heart attack or stroke. If you've been on daily aspirin therapy and want to stop, it's important to talk to your doctor before making any changes. Suddenly stopping daily aspirin therapy could have a rebound effect that may trigger a blood clot.
Can I take aspirin if I regularly take ibuprofen for another condition?
Ibuprofen counteracts the benefit of daily aspirin therapy when taken together. Both aspirin and ibuprofen reduce the clotting action of blood platelets.
If you need only a single dose of ibuprofen, take it eight hours before or 30 minutes after the aspirin. If you need to take ibuprofen more often, talk to your doctor about medication alternatives.
What are the possible side effects of daily aspirin therapy?
Even if you do have risk factors for heart attack or stroke, don't pop open your aspirin bottle just yet. If you're already taking an anticoagulant such as warfarin (Coumadin) for another condition, combining it with aspirin may greatly increase the risk of major bleeding complications. However, there may be some conditions for which combining a low dose of aspirin with warfarin is appropriate (for example, with certain types of artificial heart valves for secondary stroke prevention), but this therapy always needs to be carefully discussed with your doctor.
Other medications and herbal supplements also may increase your risk of bleeding. Be sure to talk to your doctor about all of your medications — prescription and over-the-counter — and any supplements that you're taking, before beginning daily aspirin therapy.
Side effects and complications of taking aspirin include:
- Hemorrhagic stroke. While daily aspirin can help prevent a clot-related stroke, it may increase your risk of a bleeding stroke (hemorrhagic stroke).
- Gastrointestinal bleeding. Daily aspirin use increases your risk of developing a stomach ulcer. And, if you have a bleeding ulcer, taking aspirin will cause it to bleed more, perhaps to a life-threatening extent.
- Allergic reaction. If you're allergic to aspirin, taking any amount of aspirin can trigger a serious allergic reaction.
- Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and hearing loss. Too much aspirin (overdosing) can cause tinnitus and eventual hearing loss in some people.
If you're taking aspirin and you must undergo even a simple surgical procedure or dental work, be sure to tell the surgeon or dentist that you take daily aspirin and how much. Otherwise you risk excessive bleeding during surgery.
The Food and Drug Administration also warns that people who regularly take aspirin should limit the amount of alcohol they drink because of its additional blood-thinning effects and potential to upset your stomach. If you take daily aspirin therapy, you should not have more than one drink a day if you're a woman or two drinks a day if you're a man.
If I take daily aspirin, is it still safe to take an aspirin during a heart attack?
For most people experiencing heart attack symptoms, doctors recommend chewing and swallowing one plain regular-strength aspirin or two to four baby aspirin. This recommendation still holds true if you are on daily aspirin therapy. Chewing the aspirin speeds up the absorption process and minimizes any delay in the beneficial effects of aspirin.
If you have certain bleeding disorders, you should not take an aspirin during a heart attack, and you're also not a candidate for daily aspirin therapy.
Don't take aspirin if you think you're having a stroke, because not all strokes are caused by blood clots; some are caused by ruptured blood vessels. Taking aspirin could make a bleeding stroke more severe.
Aspirin Information
With all of the amazing medical advances and new medications available, it's reassuring to know that aspirin is still an effective, affordable and simple option for many people at risk of heart attack and stroke. Always check with your doctor before starting daily aspirin therapy.
Super aspirin refers drugs that are an alternative or supplement to aspirin. These medications are called platelet aggregation inhibitors and reduce the risk of blood clots. Though they have similar effects as aspirin, they work by a slightly different action. This class of drugs includes clopidogrel (Plavix), eptifibatide (Integrilin) and others. These medications may be used:
- Along with aspirin, to reduce the risk of another heart attack or stroke in people who have had one
- During a heart attack or clot-related strokes
- Before and after angioplasty and stent placement, to help reduce procedure-related blood clots
- To treat peripheral vascular disease
Super aspirin may be an option if you are resistant to aspirin, are allergic to aspirin or can't tolerate its side effects. The combination of aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix) is recommended only for people who have specific heart or blood vessel conditions. If you are currently taking Plavix and aspirin but have not had a heart attack or stroke, don't stop taking it suddenly. Talk to your doctor first.
Enteric-coated aspirin is designed to pass through your stomach and not disintegrate until it reaches your intestines. It's gentler on the stomach and may be appropriate for some people who take a daily aspirin, especially in those with a history of gastritis or ulcers.
However, it takes longer for your body to absorb enteric-coated aspirin, and it doesn't appear to offer significant protection against bleeding in your stomach and intestines. If you have questions about the type of aspirin you should take, ask your doctor to determine the best aspirin for you.
Aspirin Brand names
|
|
|
Brand names of combination Asiprin products
|
|
