aspirin

[Ken Gargett]

mate of mine been taking an aspirin a day for about 8 months. stopped for a month and then started up again. ended up in hospital in shock and all sorts of major problems. doctors think that was what kicked it off.

given all we read about an aspirin a day etc, wondering if anyone out there takes it, or refuses to.

any thoughts?

my mate is just so relieved that it wasn't wine or smokes causing the problems.

[Trevor2118]

Ken,

I take a perscribed 80mg coated asprin daily, to avoid clots from Atrial Fibrillation.

Trevor.

[Ken Gargett]

ta trev.

i suppose no 'drug' is perfect. suits some and not others. i suspect i'd be a good candidate as i had those clots a few years back - superficial subterraneous clots or something (no as serious as DVT but not much fun either) - but i don't like taking anything without a doctor directing it.

and buggered if i know why this post came up twice or why i can't delete the second one.

[Trevor2118]

and buggered if i know why this post came up twice or why i can't delete the second one.

Just deleted it.

[mash]

Hi Ken:

That is a bit of a mystery. I wonder if your friend had a GI bleed, uncommon on low dose ASA but it can happen. Wonder if he was taking anything else that might have a bleeding risk, or possibly drinking more than usual (not an aspersion on your friend, just something we always think about when this happens).

For the mainstream, taking low dose Aspirin is wise, as long as no allergies, prior bleeds etc. If you have chest pain, find someone who can give you a full strength tablet, 325mg, and chew it.

[Ken Gargett]

they have done extensive tests - he had heart issues and prior to that an anathylactic shock, quite massive. heart all clear and they think it was the aspirin re the shock. checked out everything else.

and god help us if he was drinking more than usual!

by coincidence, the sydney morning herald have just published this on the website.

Macular degeneration linked to aspirin use

Date January 22, 2013 - 2:41PM

• 
  Aspirin ... linked to eye disease. Photo: Bloomberg
  It's used widely to prevent heart attack and stroke but new Australian research has raised concerns that aspirin could be contributing to eye disease.
  Regular aspirin use was linked to a more than two-fold increase in the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the elderly, by researchers from the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research in Sydney.
  The institute's Centre for Vision Research studied 2389 people over a 15-year period and discovered 63 developed neovascular, or late-stage, AMD.
  The centre's director, Paul Mitchell, said 9.3 per cent of regular aspirin users in the study developed the condition after 15 years, compared with 3.7 per cent of those who did not take aspirin regularly.
  
• This translated to a 2 1/2-fold risk for regular aspirin users.
  Professor Mitchell said the study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, could not conclude aspirin was the cause of the AMD.
  It would therefore be premature for clinicians to change their practice around recommending aspirin use, he said.
  "But this is another possible adverse event of aspirin," Professor Mitchell said.
  "Aspirin has been put forward as something that just about everyone should take.
  "It's findings like this that suggest we should be cautious about going down that path."
  He said three other international studies had found similar results suggesting a link between regular aspirin use and AMD.
  It could be that conditions such as heart problems for which people took aspirin were associated with macular degeneration, Professor Mitchell said.
  More vigorous studies were needed to test the findings further, he said.
  Aspirin has been shown to be beneficial in the prevention of recurrent heart disease, including heart attack and stroke, and is one of the most widely used medications worldwide, with more than 100 billion tablets consumed each year.
  

[PigFish]

As you know Ken I had a heart attack in '08. I take aspirin daily. I also have arthritis in many of my joints, mostly from racing motorcycles as a kid.

My aspirin therapy is two fold, one for the heart with my Plavix (a platelet modifier) and the other for pain and swelling of joints. I take enteric aspirin, 3 to 4 a day. With all that in my blood I am still not a real bleeder. I once tried to give platelets down at the City of Hope for a friend who had Leukemia and I clogged two of their platelet machines in 2 hours. I have incredibly sticky blood, which is not good for a guy with heart problems. Probably all those ribeyes, Twinkies and cigar smoke!!! -LOL

If you have chest pain and end up in the ER around here, the first thing they will do is have you chew an aspirin. I believe in the stuff. The clogging of stented arteries can be a real issue (restenosis), but the Plavix and the aspirin has kept me out of the hospital so far.

Having taken aspirin for years before my heart attack might very well have lead to me beating the odds and doing little damage to my heart. I have taken a regimen of aspirin on and off for decades!

The drug with a real side effect as far as I am concerned is the damn statin for cholesterol. I have many bad symptoms from those drugs and I think doctors put way too many people on them. I take as little as I can get away with and still have muscle ache and fatigue issues that I link to them. I think that these affect some people extremely negatively. At least they do me! If I did not have existing heart issues, I would not take them at all.

-R

[Ken Gargett]

ta ray,

i wonder if your doc should think about crestor for the cholesterol?

i was good when younger but lifestyle catches up and i fought it for quite a few years, not very successfully.

i was sitting around the 7. i gather 2.5 to 4 is the desired range.

my bloke put me on crestor - one small tablet a day - and within a few weeks, i was under 4. have been 3.5 to around 4.2 ever since. no side effects (that i know about).

[dicko]

My grandpa used to chew aspirin every day and lived to 92. He often had chest issues such as bronchitis as a young man so I'm not sure if the aspirin helped him In that respect. He also had a bottle of red and whiskey each day so I don't know if his medical routine is recommended haha

[PigFish]

ta ray,

i wonder if your doc should think about crestor for the cholesterol?

i was good when younger but lifestyle catches up and i fought it for quite a few years, not very successfully.

i was sitting around the 7. i gather 2.5 to 4 is the desired range.

my bloke put me on crestor - one small tablet a day - and within a few weeks, i was under 4. have been 3.5 to around 4.2 ever since. no side effects (that i know about).

Crestor is a statin my friend. I take it now. Small doses are okay with most people but larger doses are given to people with heart history and high cholesterol. I am just one of the lucky ones!!! -LOL These drugs do not set to well with me but it is not an option for me these days. They have quite a reputation for side effects and I am one of those that gets them. I would not take it if I did not have too!

[anacostiakat]

Take a small dose aspirin daily to help cut down on recurrence of polyps.

[canadianbeaver]

I do not take aspirin (yet) but my dad has for years. I don't think he takes off the shelf aspirin, like Bayer bottled stuff. Like you guys do, it is one prescribed. He has no heart issues.

I may be typically cynical about anything pharma across the board, but seems to me aspirin was announced as a daily preventative for heart attacks when Tylenol, Motrin, Advil, Aleve etc. and their generic counterparts were gaining speed (many actually the same compounds). Not that this treatment did not have merit, but the off the shelf common practice for the public is a pretty good marketing strategy.

[hdryder]

My Dads doctor has him taking baby asprin everyday since he had a mild heart attack about 15years ago. He has had no trouble since

[Murri]

My doctor suggested 82mg a day if I was to take it daily, not a higher dose.

This was 1/4 of the 325 mg tablets that came pre-scored to break in quarters.

I think it was for slightly high cholesterol, never took it, started to ride a bike instead.