Low Dose Aspirin For Heart Protection

Aspirin is still one of the best ways to prevent heart attack and manage heart disease. Newer researches however have given evidence that low dose aspirin is safer and better tolerated than higher doses. One of these studies showed that taking more than 100 mg of aspirin a day increases the risk of bleeding, from nosebleeds to bleeding in the stomach and the brain. The study has found that serious bleeding occurs in five percent of heart disease patients taking 200 mg a day or more aspirin daily, but only one percent of heart disease patients taking the lower dose of aspirin experience bleeding. Lower doses such as 30 mg have shown to have excellent tolerability.

Although the study does not address how well different doses of aspirin prevent heart attacks, it is very much probable that low dose aspirin is as effective as higher doses to prevent second heart attacks. Aspirin helps prevent the formation of clots that block blood flow to the heart to prevent heart attack in people at high risk of having one and among those who have already suffered from a first heart attack. Although aspirin has existed for more than a century, it was only in 1998 when the US food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized a rule to provide doctors updated information on the use of aspirin for me and women who have had a heart attack or stroke or are at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease.