If you have been taking this self prescribed potent medication, you are advised to do away with the aspirin and seek an accurate risk assessment for heart disease. In case you have been advised to take a low dose aspirin by your doctor, reconsidering might be a good idea. As far as taking aspirin to boost your heart health is concerned, here are some facts worthy knowing.

You shouldn’t take aspirin regularly without visiting a knowledgeable doctor for a reliable risk assessment of your cardiovascular health.

It is so sad that most doctors are usually very inaccurate when it comes to evaluating the heart attack risk of their patients and prescribe aspirin inappropriately as a preventive measure. Over reliance on Framingham Risk Score which has now become outdated is essentially the main cause of this. Experts always advise that you get a noninvasive CT scan for your heart and be well aware of your heart’s condition.

Taking aspirin improves the chances of survival for those who have had a stroke or a heart attack

Minimizing the risk of other strokes and heart attacks is regarded as a secondary prevention. For patients who have ever experienced stroke or heart attack or have signs of coronary artery disease like coronary bypass operation, coronary angioplasty or angine, aspirin has well known benefits of preventing secondary attack and definitely outweighs the risk of bleeding.

Taking preventive aspirin isn’t necessary for those with diabetes

Aspirin therapy is highly recommended by American Diabetes Association for primary prevention but only among patients having diabetes type 1 or type, but their risk of bleeding shouldn’t be high. Men over 50 years and women aged above 60 years are included here as well. The risk of getting cardiovascular disease is determined accurately by taking a calcium score and simply because you are having diabetes shouldn’t mean that you are having plauque buildup as well.

For those with a high CVD risk that requires use of statin, taking aspirin is also advised

The main reason for this is that these drugs tend to act different and aspirin won’t lower cholesterol and will also not prevent the development of plaque like statin does. Instead, being an anti platelet agent limits the ability of clotting for the platelets.

Aspirin is a very powerful drug

Even the smallest baby aspirin dosages of just 81 mg daily increases your risk of getting gastrointestinal bleeding and cerebral hemorrhage as well as bleeding in the stomach, esophagus, anus and rectum by as many as four times.

Aspirin doesn’t solve it all

Stroke or heart attack can be prevented better by practicing healthy lifestyle measures rather than just taking aspirin. Eat healthily and exercise regularly.