In recent years, it has become common knowledge that daily aspirin use can help reduce the risk of experiencing a heart attack, a stroke and even colorectal cancer. However, these days the medical community is starting to raise some questions about this practice and even caution against it.
Doctors and healthcare providers used to recommend a daily use of aspirin as it is known to interfere with the blood's coagulation properties. It does so by reducing the clumping action of platelets in the vessels caused by the buildup of fatty deposits. In doing so, the aspirin allows the thinning of the blood while potentially preventing blockages that can lead to heart attacks and other vascular diseases such as strokes.
The understanding of these qualities led many physicians to freely prescribe and recommend a daily use of the drug, without considering further medical information and consequences.
Today, this is changing.
New research indicates the risks of daily usage of aspirin, taking into consideration the life-threatening effects of its blood thinning qualities.
The research cautions that people suffering from bleeding or clotting disorders such as hemophilia may be at risk if they use aspirin on a daily basis. It also distinguishes between the type of strokes- noting that people who have suffered from a hemorrhagic stroke should be warned against this form of therapy, even though aspirin can help prevent a clot-related stroke. If you experienced aspirin induced asthma in the past or suffered from bleeding stomach ulcers, it seems quite needless to say that it is highly recommended that you don’t use aspirin.
For these reasons, specialists are now suggesting that doctors prescribe the daily use of aspirin only under certain circumstances. Criteria for this includes patients who previously suffered from a heart attack or a clot-related stroke, or patients with substantial risk of having one in the near future.
Furthermore, people who have had a stent placed, coronary bypass surgery, or suffer from coronary artery disease like Angina are also indicated for aspirin treatment, even if they have no history of suffering from a heart attack or stroke, as they are considered a population at risk. Individuals with diabetes, with at least one other heart disease risk factor such as high blood pressure, are also on the list. Another factor that favours the decision of prescribing aspirin daily usage is age: women over the age of 60 or men over the age of 50 have a higher chance to suffer from heart attacks and strokes.
The change in perception of daily aspirin use is a clear case of how accumulative data and outcomes over the years can change what was previously considered common treatment line. This is the essence of evidence based medicine.