In modern society, we sometimes overlook that fact that newer isn't always better. Modern convenience foods may be easier to prepare than a meal made the old-fashioned way, but these products are nutritionally empty and loaded with synthetic preservatives. Produce made with modern agricultural methods looks prettier than organic fruits and vegetables, but it's laden with toxic pesticides. And the sedative your doctor prescribed to help you fall asleep has dangerous side effects -- unlike the chamomile tea your grandmother used to brew.
Simpler is also better when it comes to preventing heart attacks. Despite the debut of newer, more expensive drugs, nothing beats aspirin for preventing this nation's number one killer.
Aspirin's protective benefits were first proposed forty years ago by Dr.Lawrence Craven, who noticed that children given aspirin-containing gum for pain after a tonsillectomy had increased bleeding. Craven reasoned that if aspirin could prevent blood clotting, as it obviously did in these children, it might be useful for cardiovascular disease, since heart attacks occur when a blood clot forms in a coronary artery and cuts off the blood supply to that area of the heart.
Aspirin Prevents Heart Attacks
Craven was right. We now know that aspirin blocks the production of hormones called prostaglandins that are responsible for pain, inflammation, and abnormal blood clots. The Physicians' Health Study, a long-term investigation involving 22,000 male physicians, found that a daily dose of aspirin reduced the risk of a first heart attack by 44 percent compared to placebo in men over the age of 50. The evidence for aspirin's ability to prevent heart attacks was so compelling that the study was halted early.
Aspirin is of even greater benefit for those who have already suffered a heart attack or are at risk of one because of coronary artery disease. In fact, aspirin works as well as high-tech big-dollar prescription drugs used for this purpose. In a recent study that involved some 9,000 patients with heart disease, aspirin was as effective as the blood-thinning medication sibrafiban in preventing a heart attack -- and aspirin had far fewer side effects.
Increases the Likelihood of Surviving a Heart Attack
Recent studies have shown that if aspirin is taken at the first sign of a heart attack, chances of death from that heart attack can be substantially reduced. In a study involving over 17,000 patients seen in a hospital within 24 hours of the onset of a heart attack, patients given aspirin in that time period and for 30 days thereafter had a 23 percent lower death rate than those who did not receive aspirin.
It Doesn't Take Much.
The dosage of aspirin needed to prevent a heart attack is much lower than the dose you'd take for a headache or arthritis pain. One-half a regular aspirin or one baby aspirin daily is sufficient. Taken with food, this dose is not likely to cause the gastrointestinal problems that sometimes occur at higher doses.
If you have heart disease and are not taking aspirin as a preventive measure, speak to your physician. This simple and inexpensive remedy is one of the most powerful agents for the prevention and treatment of heart attack.
Return to main menu