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Proof: Aspirin Does Prevent Heart Attacks
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Business New Haven
12/11/2000
By: John Florian
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NEW HAVEN - Keep that aspirin bottle in your desk drawer. Not only to shoo away headaches, but also to shield yourself from a heart attack.
Sure, you've heard this before. But more studies are weighing in with conclusive evidence of aspirin's power, at least, in preventing a “first” heart attack. Patricia Hebert, associate research scientist in the Department of Medicine, Cardiology, at the Yale School of Medicine, examined four studies and her observations were published in a recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“The results reconfirm that aspirin is beneficial in preventing a first myocardial infarction,” says Hebert. In the studies, individuals who took aspirin had a 32-percent reduction in non-fatal heart attacks. The studies involved more than 51,000 people and 2,284 “vascular events,” which included deaths related to vascular disease, either cardiac or cerebral; and non-fatal heart attacks and strokes.
Even so, there were not enough “events” in the studies to assess the effects of aspirin on overall stroke, ischemic stroke or cardiovascular death, Hebert reports. She even detected an increase in the risk of hemorrhagic stroke from taking aspirin.
“In primary prevention, there is conclusive benefit of aspirin in reducing the risk of a first myocardial infarction and any important vascular event,” Hebert says. But more tests are needed to take conclusions further, to “help formulate a rational public health policy for individuals at usual risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke,” she adds.
And if the need for more studies gives you a headache - well, take an aspirin.
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