Doubts about aspirin

[thirdcrank]

Has anybody any useful information about the current doubts over daily doses of aspirin for anybody with heart problems?

I ask because I've been taking it on prescription for some thirteen years and at 72 I'm in what seems to be the recently-identified danger zone.

AFAIK, it's one of those statistical calculations which Axel K raises from time to time. While there's benefit for some who take it, the number who may develop serious bleeding may be greater.

[al_yrpal]

I took aspirin for years. I was always careful to use soluble aspirin with a full stomach after a meal thus diluting the effect that could result from a neat solid aspirin landing on my unprotected stomach wall and potentially causing a bleed. However I have never seen any medical advice on how to take it.

Al

[thirdcrank]

An earlier thread here from somebody who experienced problems with soluble aspirin

viewtopic.php?p=172792#p172792

AFAIK, the current doubts concern aspirin as such, not different forms of the medication.

[axel_knutt]

Hi TC, what I know about aspirin is only in the context of AF, in which case it has fallen out of favour because the alternatives like Warfarin and the NOACs give better stroke prevention for no worse risk of haemorrhage. (see 9 & 9.2.7)

The ESC is quite a good source of info, because their papers are open access without a paywall. Is this of any relevance? There's no mention of the same alternatives used with AF.(Addenda here.)

[thirdcrank]

axel-knutt

Thanks for that which was interesting in the parts which were not too complicated for me. The parts I did read seemed to confirm the stuff I knew at a general knowledge, reasonably well-informed layman level.

The thing that got me going with this was something in the Daily T suggesting that while regular aspirin "works" in some cases of heart disease, it causes dangerous bleeding in a greater number of patients, especially those in the 73+ age group, where I'm quickly heading. I'm surprised that no one else in a similar position seems to have seen it.

[Mistik-ka]

This is certainly a worthwhile question for anyone in your —soon to be my— age range. Interesting that the Daily T article indicated the borderline age to be 73+. Everything I found with a perusal of research papers available on the web seems to look at the statistics in 10-year cohorts starting at 50-60 years of age, so the Daily T may be looking at something quite new … and surprisingly discriminating.

Bearing in mind that the function of the news media is the manufacturing of news, a more useful source of information is your doctor, who should have a comprehensive view of the health factors that apply to you specifically and will also have access —via the computer on the desk or iPad in the drawer— to the latest research. If your doctor is not more reliable than a newspaper … it's time to find a new doctor.

It merits discussion at your next regular check-up.

[thirdcrank]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitne ... t-aspirin/

That's the brief summary and I'm rather embarrassed that the danger group is said to start at age 75.

[softlips]

To the OP. Discuss it with your GP or cardiologist particularly if you've ever had a heart attack or had stents placed. There are many variables to weighing up the risk vs benefit like any drug. Interestingly, if you've taken it for several years daily your risk of bowel cancer diminishes even after ceasing to take it.

[Mistik-ka]

The Daily T''s summary is missing some important data.

What is the likelihood of being admitted to hospital with internal bleeding —especially, fatal internal bleeding— for people taking daily aspirin vs. people not taking daily aspirin? If, as the article implies, there is significantly higher risk for those on daily aspirin, how does that risk vary with dose, age, length of time taking aspirin, medical history, family medical history, gender, and concomitant medications and medical conditions? Once we've sorted that lot out, and looked at the relative risk for heart attack and stroke with or without daily aspirin (with the same questions of dose, age, etc.) we can start to consider 'relative risk' and make informed decisions.

(So that's why I was required to take those undergraduate classes in statistical analysis and research methodology )

And that's why I agree with softlips: the sensible course is to take the question to your GP or cardiologist.

[thirdcrank]

I fell out with the cardiologist when he convinced me I needed a stent and that it was only a minor procedure and a few weeks later (after Patricia Hewitt imposed cash cuts) told me that I wouldn't be getting a stent and it was, in any case, a risky procedure. It was only when I suggested he check through my file that he found a copy of the letter bearing his signature to my GP saying that I was to have a stent that he accepted the first consultation had taken place. For better or worse, I've not been near a cardiologist since. I've taken "just what the doctor ordered" ever since. Thirteen years on, I'm still here and in a better mental state than I was then. Give or take, that's some 5,000 aspirin tablets down the hatch.

[Audax67]

^^^Crikey. Being diabetic, I have yearly cardiac stress tests with follow-up coronary angiograms if anything looks suspect. That way they - and I - can see if intervention is necessary. Without that procedure, chances are I'd have popped my clogs on LEL in 2007, assuming I'd got that far. As it is I'm on stent n°3 and still pedalling. Was on aspirin for a while but the gut/oesophagus damage was too great so they cut it out.

BTW, when the baby-aspirin-per-day-for-all regime was first mooted years ago, I worked out how much the drug companies would benefit. It was astronomical. 'Follow the money' ain't wrong.

[cotterpins]

I drink two 75 mg aspirins dissolved in water with my breakfast and have done so since 1998. No problems until recently, that I put down to Metformin this last week or so. It seems, by more luck than judgement, that on the occasions of really rough belly pain and bloating, [hunger pang type feeling] that it dawned on me to cut out coffee after a couple of rough turnouts after consumption. So far, it appears that the two don't mix in my case . . . time will tell, though. I've never given half a soluble aspirin a thought as a cause!

[blackbike]

GPs advise any middle aged person who visits them to take aspirin.

They know it will save more lives than it'll cost.

[Vorpal]

There appears to be a little more information about the study https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-06- ... ients.html

TC: If you don't see that same cardiologist, see another one! At least talk with your GP about it. Or someone in the medical profession?

[thirdcrank]

Thanks for the link. I can't help wondering if a manufacturer of PPI's is pushing their wares. I'm cautious about the idea of taking one medication to prevent the side effects of another, which might in any case only work for some people.

I'm rather reassured by the lack of responses here, in that it suggests to me the many forum members in my age group haven't all been told to stop taking aspirin.