You've heard that a low dose aspirin a day would help prevent a heart attack, but are doctors reversing the recommendation?
The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association now suggest that the low dose aspirin could be linked to bleeding or major hemorrhages. Dr. Orlando Deffer, cardiologist at East Jefferson General Hospital says, that baby aspirin as been common practice for quite some time but ....
"What has happened is that aspirin had been recommended across the board for everybody and aspirin, even though it's not that common, you can still suffer from bleeding, you could have ulcers, you could have GI bleeding," said Deffer.
Deffer says now doctors want to modify the risk factors first. If they're smoking get them to stop, if they're overweight get them to lose weight, healthier diet it all plays a part.
It makes much more sense to modify the risk factors than just to recommend aspirin for those patients," Deffer said. "Of course if they have had cardiovascular events than those are the patients you're supposed to individualize for the treatment of aspirin."
But Deffer says you should always speak to your doctor before getting on even a low dose aspirin. Never start on your own.