Maintaining a healthy body weight, regularly exercising, not smoking, controlling cholesterol levels, and limiting fast foods, sodas, and alcohol are all great ways to prevent cardiovascular disease. However, if you or someone in your family has a history of heart attack or stroke, you might have been told that taking a daily low-dose aspirin can be used as a preventative. While there is merit to this, a new survey indicates that the over-the-counter (OTC) medication could be doing more harm than good.
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New health guidelines question old thinking that a daily aspirin can prevent heart attacks.
In the medical field, a daily low-dose aspirin is considered a preventative aid for heart attack and stroke. However, 2019 guidelines backed by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) argue that there are better primary prevention measures for cardiovascular disease than aspirin. What’s more, the OTC pill can actually cause gastrointestinal issues in those who don’t have a history of stroke or heart attack.
This information has been around for five years, yet nearly half of U.S. adults still think the benefits of daily aspirin outweigh the risks, according to a new survey conducted by University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC).
"Habits backed by conventional wisdom and the past advice of health care providers are hard to break," APPC director Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who led the survey, said in a press release. "Knowing whether taking a low-dose aspirin daily is advisable or not for you is vital health information."
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Daily aspirin has been linked to gastrointestinal bleeding in healthy adults over 70.
Among the respondents, family history of heart attack or stroke was pretty split down the middle, with 45 percent responding yes and 49 percent reporting no. However, 18 percent of the no-history group still reported taking a daily low-dose aspirin, and 43 percent of these individuals said the benefits outweigh the risks.
The ACC and AHA guidelines challenge this belief, as daily aspirin has been known to cause gastrointestinal bleeding in healthy adults over the age of 70 who aren’t at risk for cardiovascular disease.
"Because aspirin thins the blood, it can cause several complications," warns the AHA. "There is a risk of stomach problems, including stomach bleeding, for people who take aspirin regularly."
"For people without heart and stroke, medical professionals are requiring more evidence of high-risk cardiovascular status and are asking more questions about potential bleeding than they did before," Michael J. Blaha, MD, director of clinical research at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, explained to USA Today. "This has led to a modest decrease in aspirin prescribing, but more emphasis on individualizing its use to the right patients."
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So, should you take aspirin?
According to Blaha, daily low-dose aspirin "remains an effective therapy" and "standard of care" for folks with a history of heart attack or stroke. It becomes nuanced when no-history people self-prescribe themselves daily aspirin out of fear of suffering a cardiac event.
"Too many low-risk patients were taking aspirin in the past, sometimes without consulting a medical professional," Blaha told USA Today. If you’re "at low to moderate risk of cardiovascular disease without any evidence of subclinical disease on imaging or prior heart attack or stroke," you likely don’t need to be taking aspirin, he added.
As with any medication, including OTC drugs, speak with your doctor before consumption. Medications can trigger underlying health conditions or make you more susceptible to certain issues, depending on your medical history.
