Each year, more than a million Americans die from heart attacks and other forms of heart disease. Taking low doses of aspirin is one way to help with heart health. Other ways include healthy eating, regular exercise, and not smoking. Learn more about how aspirin can help fight heart disease by taking this quiz.
1. One way that aspirin helps people with heart disease is by preventing blood platelets from forming clots.
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Platelets are a type of blood cell. Their sticky surface allows them to begin the process that forms blood clots. Blood clots are important to stop bleeding. But they can also block blood flow to the heart and trigger a heart attack. Or they can block arteries to the brain. This may cause an ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke. Aspirin makes the platelets less sticky. This lowers the risk for blood clots. If you stop taking aspirin, its effect continues for about a week. That's why doctors usually recommend that a person scheduled for surgery stop taking aspirin a week before the operation. This lowers the risk of bleeding after surgery.
2. If you think you're at risk for heart disease, you should take aspirin regardless of whether you've talked with your health care provider about it.
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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that you discuss with your provider the potential benefits and drawbacks of taking aspirin BEFORE you start to take it. In some people, taking aspirin does pose health risks. These include peptic ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, and allergic reactions. It can increase the risk for a hemorrhagic stroke. Aspirin also may trigger asthma in some people, especially those who have chronic sinusitis and those with nasal polyps. If you take anticoagulant medication such as Coumadin, aspirin may further raise the risk of bleeding. So it's important that your provider knows if you are taking either or both medications.
3. As long as you're not allergic to aspirin, aspirin will help protect you against a heart attack.
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Some people may be resistant to aspirin. In these people, aspirin may not give the same protection that it will to those who aren’t resistant. In that case, health care providers may prescribe another medicine that helps prevent sticky platelets.
4. If you take a type of blood pressure medication called an ACE inhibitor, you shouldn't take aspirin.
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Current research says that aspirin doesn’t affect how ACE inhibitors work. In the past, some medical experts had thought that aspirin keep ACE inhibitors from working as well as they should. But studies have disproved that. ACE inhibitors lower blood pressure by blocking an enzyme that helps narrow blood vessels. These drugs are often given to people after a heart attack or to people with congestive heart failure.
5. If you have bypass surgery, your health care provider may start you on aspirin right away.
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Health care providers in the past had told bypass patients to avoid aspirin after surgery. But research suggests that taking aspirin within 48 hours of coronary bypass surgery increases the chance of survival. It also reduces the rate of complications of the heart, brain, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract.
6. Aspirin may help protect blood vessels against inflammation.
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Blood vessels that are affected by atherosclerosis and are narrowed by plaque become inflexible and inflamed. Clinical research has found that aspirin not only helps prevent blood clots from forming, but it also protects the blood vessels against even mild inflammation. Inflammation causes changes in blood vessels similar to those seen in people at high risk for heart disease. Inflammation of the blood vessels also is responsible for angina, the pain or discomfort in the chest caused when the heart muscle does not get enough blood. Aspirin relieves angina by reducing the amount of inflammation-producing chemicals in the body.
7. Aspirin is given to all stroke patients immediately after arriving at the hospital.
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Most strokes are caused by clots. These are called ischemic strokes. But some strokes are caused by ruptured blood vessels. Taking aspirin could potentially make these bleeding (hemorrhagic) strokes worse. According to the American Heart Association, aspirin given within 2 days to a person who has just had an ischemic stroke makes the stroke less severe. Aspirin may also help to prevent more ischemic strokes, which often happen shortly after the first one. Aspirin given over a long period also helps lower the risk for a second ischemic stroke. But it may raise the risk for a hemorrhagic stroke.
8. Only a small percentage of people who could be helped by aspirin therapy actually take it.
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A recent study by the American Heart Association found that only about 1 out of 4 people who had heart disease and could be helped by aspirin therapy took aspirin for prevention. More men than women take aspirin as a preventive measure. More people younger than 80 took aspirin as a preventive measure than those older than 80. Experts say, however, that aspirin is especially helpful in older adults. If you have heart disease, talk with your health care provider about taking aspirin.
