The new guidelines do not change for people who have had a heart attack.
April 26, 2022, 3:00 p.m.
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For years, doctors have advised people in their 50s to start taking baby aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks and strokes. But in recent years, with new evidence of the potential harm of daily aspirin, health experts have changed those recommendations.
In a major new guide, an influential medical task force no longer recommends daily aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke in people 60 and older. Meanwhile, the new guide says people between the ages of 40 and 59 should only take it if they are at high risk for cardiovascular disease and after consulting a doctor. There is little benefit from continuing to take aspirin after the age of 75, experts concluded.
The new leadership comes from the United States Ad Hoc Preventive Services Group (USPSTF), an influential medical group that helps guide best medical practices.
Heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in the United States, accounting for more than one in four deaths. Daily use of aspirin has been shown to reduce the risk of a first heart attack or stroke, but can also increase the risk of bleeding in the brain, stomach and intestines. Although the absolute risk of bleeding is low, the risk increases with age.
“Based on current evidence, the working group recommends that people aged 60 and over start taking aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke,” said Michael Michael Barry, the group’s deputy chairman, ABC News. medicine at Massachusetts Hospital. “As the chance of internal bleeding increases with age, the potential harms of aspirin use nullify the benefits in this age group.”
Aspirin products are on the shelf at Walgreens Pharmacy on May 26, 2004 in Chicago, May 26, 2004.
“People between the ages of 40 and 59 who have no history of cardiovascular disease but are at higher risk may benefit from starting aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke.” , a member of the working group, Dr. John Wong, interim chief scientific officer and professor of medicine at Tufts Medical Center, told ABC News. “It’s important for them to decide with their healthcare provider if starting aspirin is right for them, because daily aspirin can cause serious harm.”
“It is important for the public to understand that for the vast majority of Americans without a history of heart disease, aspirin does not provide a net benefit. The harms are roughly equal to all the benefits. The USPSTF simply catches up with this widely accepted scientific view. For nearly 20 years, the FDA has recommended not using routine aspirin for prophylaxis in patients without heart disease, “Dr. Stephen Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, told ABC News.
The new recommendations were aimed at people who have not yet started taking aspirin daily. The expert group did not issue guidelines for people who are already taking daily aspirin, and the updated news does not necessarily mean that people should stop taking it if prescribed by a doctor.
“We want to emphasize that these recommendations are aimed at starting aspirin to prevent the first heart attack or stroke. Anyone who is already taking aspirin and has questions about it should talk to their healthcare professional, ”said Wong.
The generic aspirin is in its March bottle in Des Plaines, Illinois, March 14, 2006.
The new guidelines do not change for people who have had a heart attack, stroke or other serious cardiovascular problem. The recommendation to use aspirin to protect them from a second event remains strong.
In recent years, the recommendations for daily intake of aspirin to prevent the disease have changed. In 2016, the Preventive Services Working Group recommended that 50-year-olds at risk for heart disease take baby aspirin to prevent both cardiovascular disease and colon cancer. But updated recommendations based on further research have found that the benefits may not outweigh the risks, concluding that the best prevention of colon cancer is routine screening starting at age 45.
Dr. Chineze Akusoba is an Internal Medicine Resident at the Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota, and a Fellow of ABC News Medical Unit.
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