What type of aspirin to take daily

People ages 60 or older are now advised not to start taking aspirin to prevent first heart attacks or strokes. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U. Aspirin acts as an anticoagulant, meaning it helps to prevent blood clots from forming. A clot that cuts off blood flow to the heart leads to a heart attack; one that cuts off blood flow to the brain causes a stroke. The idea behind taking a daily low-dose aspirin was to lower the risk of such clots, lowering the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Newer studies that informed the latest task force recommendations found that for most healthy people, the risk of bleeding caused by aspirin outweighs the benefits of preventing blood clots. Chien-Wen Tseng, a professor of family medicine at the John H. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. According to the new recommendations, the benefit of daily low-dose aspirin is small for most people ages 40 to 59, while the risk of bleeding problems is higher.

Both trials showed that low dose aspirin at milligrams per day did not prevent subsequent heart attacks or strokes over a period of approximately five years. However, aspirin did increase the risk for major bleeding. It is likely that other therapies such as the appropriate use of statin medications , more intensive blood pressure control and smoking cessation are more important measures for prevention than taking aspirin. The best way to assess your risk level is to talk to your doctor about it.

Your doctor can help you weigh the risks and benefits to determine if low dose aspirin therapy is right for you. Health Home Wellness and Prevention. Risks of Low-Dose Aspirin Like most medicines, aspirin has side effects. To make sure low-dose aspirin is safe for you, tell your doctor if you have:. Check with your doctor that it's safe for you to take low-dose aspirin if you're pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or if you want to breastfeed. Take low-dose aspirin once a day. Don't take it on an empty stomach.

It's best to take it with or just after food. This will make it less likely to upset your stomach. Your doctor will discuss what dose is right for you. It's important to take low-dose aspirin exactly as recommended by your doctor.

The usual dose to prevent a heart attack or stroke is 75mg once a day a regular strength tablet for pain relief is mg.

The daily dose may be higher - up to mg once a day - especially if you have just had a stroke, heart attack or heart bypass surgery. You can buy low-dose enteric coated aspirin and low-dose soluble aspirin from pharmacies, shops and supermarkets.

If you forget to take a dose of aspirin, take it as soon as you remember. If you don't remember until the following day, skip the missed dose. If you forget doses often, it may help to set an alarm to remind you. You could also ask your pharmacist for advice on other ways to remember to take your medicine. The amount of aspirin that can lead to overdose varies from person to person. Get someone else to drive you or call for an ambulance. Take the aspirin packet or leaflet inside it, plus any remaining medicine, with you.

Like all medicines, aspirin can cause side effects, although not everyone gets them. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if the side effects bother you or don't go away:. It happens rarely, but some people have serious side effects after taking low-dose aspirin.

In rare cases, it's possible to have a serious allergic reaction to aspirin. It's generally safe to take low-dose aspirin during pregnancy, as long as your doctor has said it's OK. For more information about how low-dose aspirin can affect you and your baby during pregnancy, read this leaflet on the Best Use of Medicines in Pregnancy BUMPS website. But your doctor may suggest that you take low-dose aspirin while you're breastfeeding if they think the benefits of the medicine outweigh the possible harm.

Tell your doctor if you're taking these medicines before you start taking aspirin :. It's safe to take paracetamol with low-dose aspirin. However, do not take ibuprofen at the same time as low-dose aspirin without talking to your doctor. Aspirin and ibuprofen both belong to the same group of medicines called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs NSAIDs.

If you take them together, it can increase your chances of side effects like stomach irritation. Aspirin may not mix well with quite a lot of complementary and herbal medicines. Aspirin could change the way they work and increase your chances of side effects.

For safety, speak to your pharmacist or doctor before taking any herbal or alternative remedies with aspirin. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you're taking any other medicines, including herbal medicines, vitamins or supplements. Aspirin slows the blood's clotting action by making platelets less sticky. Platelets are blood cells that stick together and block cuts and breaks in blood vessels, so they're important in normal health.

But in people at risk of heart attacks and stroke, platelets can stick together inside already narrowed blood vessels to form a clot.

The clot can stop blood flowing to the heart or brain and cause a heart attack or stroke. If you take it every day, low-dose aspirin stops platelets clumping together to form unwanted blood clots - and prevents heart attacks and stroke. You may not notice any difference in how you feel after you start taking low-dose aspirin. This doesn't mean that the medicine isn't working. Carry on taking daily low-dose aspirin even if you feel well, as you'll still be getting the benefits.

You'll usually need to take low-dose aspirin for the rest of your life. Low-dose aspirin is generally safe to take for a long time. In fact, it works best if you take it for many months and years. Occasionally, low-dose aspirin can cause an ulcer in your stomach or gut if you take it for a long time. If you're at risk of getting a stomach ulcer , your doctor may prescribe a medicine to help protect your stomach. But drinking too much alcohol while you're taking aspirin can irritate your stomach.

Low-dose aspirin can occasionally cause ulcers in your stomach or gut, especially if you take it for many years. If you're at risk of getting a stomach ulcer, your doctor can prescribe a medicine to help protect your stomach. But don't take ibuprofen at the same time as low-dose aspirin without talking to your doctor. There's no firm evidence to suggest that taking aspirin will reduce fertility in either men or women.

But speak to a pharmacist or your doctor before taking it if you're trying to get pregnant. Aspirin doesn't affect any type of contraception, including the combined pill and emergency contraception. If you can't take low-dose aspirin, you may be able to take another blood thinning medicine, such as clopidogrel, instead.