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Benefits Outweigh Risks of Daily Aspirin Regimen
By
Michael A. Piekarz
Staff Writer
A
new development will soon allow more seniors to use aspirin as life
saver when it comes to preventing or lessening the effects of a heart
attack or stroke.
A once-daily pill of low-dose aspirin helps to lower the potential for clot-forming
blood cells to stick together in narrow blood vessels, a study from Johns Hopkins
shows. Clots in blood vessels of the heart and brain can cause heart attacks
and strokes. The small daily doses of aspirin are also known as “aspirin
therapy.”
The Hopkins study, believed to be the first direct comparison of aspirin’s
effect in both sexes, found that aspirin therapy works for both sexes. Earlier
studies were often found inconclusive because researchers were unable to find
a correlation between aspirin and clot reduction in women. Clot reduction helps
reduce the danger from heart attacks.
“Women are clearly benefiting from taking aspirin and should continue to
take it to improve their cardiovascular health,” says study senior investigator,
Diane Becker, M.P.H., Sc.D., a professor at The Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“Aspirin has been proven by all previous studies to lower the risk of stroke
and, as our latest findings show, it also reduces platelet aggregation that can
lead to potentially fatal clots in blood vessels.”
Until the Hopkins study, health experts were divided on the benefits associated
with aspirin therapy. Most agreed that both sexes could reduce the impact of
strokes but disagreed in regards to reducing blood clots in women. The Hopkins
study showed that aspirin, taken daily for a two-week period, works by inhibiting
key biological pathways that lead to platelet clumping in both men and women.
“Our results show that aspirin does what it is supposed to do in both men
and women,” says platelet biologist and study co-author Nauder Faraday,
M.D., an associate professor at Hopkins.
“But women started at a higher baseline level of platelet aggregation and
remained slightly higher even after taking aspirin. So, it remains unclear if
the residual differences in platelet function impact the drug’s overall
beneficial effects, and if the doses used in earlier studies were sufficient
to decisively prevent heart attacks in women.”
Other studies support aspirin’s use in lowering the rates of other illnesses
such as colon cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to illness prevention,
there is evidence that aspirin can reduce the severity of a stroke or heart attack
if it is taken immediately. Beyond benefits to the cardiovascular system, other
preventative applications for a daily aspirin regimen are under study.
Side effects associated with aspirin therapy continue to be a risk factor although
the benefits are considered to outweigh the risk. Clot reduction can lead to
an increase in bleeding. In some cases, large doses of aspirin typically found
in over-the-counter aspirin products can cause stomach discomfort or gastrointestinal
bleeding.
“We also saw an increased risk of bleeding among patients taking aspirin,
but as in the decision-making process involving any therapy, there is always
the weighing of benefits and risks,” said Duke University researcher Jeffrey
Berger, M.D. at a recent meeting of the American Heart Association.
“Since a great majority of patients can tolerate aspirin, the benefits
appear to outweigh the risks. Aspirin is a drug that has been used for many years.
It is well-understood, effective, inexpensive and widely available. In aspirin
we have a proven life-saver.”
A recent development addresses the problems of aspirin tolerance and rapid delivery
of the drug once it is taken. Dr. Edward J. Petrus has developed an aspirin that
is fast dissolving and orally absorbed in order to counter a heart attack or
stroke while limiting side effects at the same time.
The development allows the aspirin to dissolve in the mouth. This allows it to
enter the blood stream within three to five minutes versus the 30 minutes to
an hour for regular aspirin. It also reduces the problems associated with gastric
upset. Currently there is one company manufacturing it: Improvita Health Products
Inc. Other manufacturers are sure to follow as researchers find additional benefits
associated with aspirin therapy.
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Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
