An Aspirin a Day? No Way!

The Dangers of Daily Aspirin

Any doctor that’s been beating the “aspirin-a-day” drum can put down his drumsticks. 

I’ve been telling you for years that taking an aspirin a day for primary prevention of heart disease can do more harm than good… and finally the medical community is catching on. 

Studies have been pouring in in recent years showing that following that advice can have deadly consequences. 

Of course, Big Medicine is a slow-moving train, so it generally takes years—decades, even—before guidelines get amended to reflect the science. 

Well, when it comes to the “aspirin a day” advice, time’s up. 

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recently revised the recommendations for daily use of low-dose aspirin. 

This is a panel of 16 independent experts that is appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whose job is to review the current scientific evidence and develop recommendations for clinical practice. 

After reviewing the scientific evidence, this panel recommends AGAINST taking low-dose aspirin for primary prevention. 

Primary prevention means it’s intended to prevent a FIRST heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular disease event. 

Secondary prevention means you’ve ALREADY had one of these events. 

Their recommendations are based on numerous large, randomized clinical trails published in the past few years that show that aspirin provides NO SIGNIFICANT BENEFIT when it comes to preventing all-cause mortality or cardiovascular mortality. 

Any slight benefit found was ONLY in higher risk cardiovascular patients, and ONLY when they were also at a low risk of bleeding.   

You see, aspirin can increase your risk of internal bleeding. Most bleeds occur in the GI tract, but these bleeds can technically occur anywhere in your body. 

And they can be fatal. 

If your risk of a cardiovascular event is low, the risks simply do not outweigh the (potential) benefits. 

However, I DO recommend keeping aspirin in your house.  

When you take it at the first sign of a heart attack, it could save your life.  

Other than that, you can feel confident about telling your doc “no thanks.”