http://abcnews.go.com/Health/bleeding-risks-outweigh-heart-benefits-aspirin-study/story?id=16501311
For years, the advice for preventing heart disease has been simple: take an aspirin every day; it can't hurt. But new research suggests that patients taking the pills and doctors prescribing them may need to think twice about that advice.
The study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that taking 300 milligrams or less of aspirin increases the risk of major stomach or brain bleeding by 55 percent, greater than previous research has suggested.
Italian researchers studied more than 370,000 hospitalized patients, looking for differences in how aspirin affects patients with diabetes and those without. But their findings apply to millions of people hoping to prevent heart problems with aspirin.
Of the more than 186,000 participants taking a daily dose of aspirin, researchers counted nearly 2,300 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding and nearly 1,300 cases of brain bleeding.
Dr. Antonio Nicolucci, one of the study's authors, said the results show that the risks of bleeding are much higher than what doctors had previously suspected after several clinical trials and should prompt doctors to carefully consider a patient's individual health before prescribing aspirin. ...more at link
For years, the advice for preventing heart disease has been simple: take an aspirin every day; it can't hurt. But new research suggests that patients taking the pills and doctors prescribing them may need to think twice about that advice.
The study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that taking 300 milligrams or less of aspirin increases the risk of major stomach or brain bleeding by 55 percent, greater than previous research has suggested.
Italian researchers studied more than 370,000 hospitalized patients, looking for differences in how aspirin affects patients with diabetes and those without. But their findings apply to millions of people hoping to prevent heart problems with aspirin.
Of the more than 186,000 participants taking a daily dose of aspirin, researchers counted nearly 2,300 cases of gastrointestinal bleeding and nearly 1,300 cases of brain bleeding.
Dr. Antonio Nicolucci, one of the study's authors, said the results show that the risks of bleeding are much higher than what doctors had previously suspected after several clinical trials and should prompt doctors to carefully consider a patient's individual health before prescribing aspirin. ...more at link
