by Julia Vann
A recent study suggests that the daily use of aspirin may adversely affect the health of older adults.
“The clinical trial, which ran from 2010 to 2014 and included 19,114 individuals 70 years and older from the U.S. and Australia, found that a low daily dose of aspirin only marginally decreased a patient’s risk of cardiovascular disease while significantly increasing the patient’s risk of hemorrhage” (Castellucci).
While taking aspirin does decrease the risk of heart disease and heart attacks, it isn’t really enough to make the risk worth the reward. With the increased risk of hemorrhage, the pros outweigh the cons. Yes, taking it to prevent heart disease does work to a minor extent, but it doesn’t really matter when the risk of hemorrhaging is so high in exchange.
Granted, this seems to only be in relation to otherwise healthy seniors taking aspirin as a preventative measure. This means seniors with no prior risk of heart disease or having never had a heart attack before.
It’s easy to see why a healthy person would fall into this mindset of taking daily aspirin. The thought is if it can prevent a second heart attack, then can’t it prevent a first one?
The issue with that mindset, however, is it pushes seniors with no risk of heart disease into taking something that can affect them worse than if they were taking nothing at all.
That’s why it’s so important to clear up medical misconceptions like this one and make the information more widespread. This is only one of many examples of health misconceptions within our society. Unfortunately, this information typically isn’t widespread enough to do any good.
For the sake of the health of our seniors, it’s important to make sure they know these things. You don’t need to take aspirin if you’re not at any risk for heart disease. It’ll be better for your health if you just don’t.
For more healthcare news, visit the American Medical Compliance website today.
