By Dr. Tom Gross
Marin Independent Journal (California)
Copyright 2007 Marin Independent Journal, a MediaNews Group publication
All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: Gross is the emergency medical services director for the Novato Fire Protection District.
While cutting some firewood a few weeks ago, I managed to cut myself as well. It was just a small nick, actually, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Then, I remembered that, since New Year’s, I have been taking one baby aspirin a day in order to lower my risk for heart disease.
In this era of increasing technical sophistication in so many aspects of medical care, with gene splicing and laser surgery, the discovery that a simple aspirin, a 2,500-year-old pain reliever from a shrub called spirea, could help prevent heart disease was met with some skepticism.
Yet, the truth is out there. According to recent landmark clinical trials, one aspirin alone can reduce the mortality from heart attacks by 23 percent. Other studies have shown that one small aspirin a day can prevent many heart attacks as well. It’s the ultimate herbal remedy.
Its mechanism is simple, but elegant. Platelets are blood cells which play a major role in the body’s response to a ruptured arterial plaque. One small aspirin inhibits the ability of the platelets to form clots, which, if growing within the coronary arteries, can lead to arterial obstruction and heart attack. The aspirin does not destroy your blood’s ability to clot, but it definitely slows it down.
Surgeons can always tell if patients have been taking aspirin within a week of surgery, because their wounds tend to bleed a little more, not excessively, but definitely noticeable.
My sheared knuckles bled in the woodpile as well, but only for a few minutes. I was never in danger, but the little extra blood on my glove made it more difficult to hide from my family that I had been careless and stupid with a sharp instrument.
Other pain relievers do not share this benefit with aspirin. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen can be excellent pain relievers, and, like aspirin, are helpful in lowering fevers, but they do not share this dramatic platelet inhibiting benefit.
I know how people think. Some people will conclude that, if one aspirin improves heart attack survival by 23 percent, then two must double the effect.
Nope. Sorry. Two are not better than one.
The dose to prevent heart attack is not the same as the dose for pain relief. It is not unusual for a medication to have one effect at one dose, and a different effect at a different location at another dose.
Some people will conclude that, if they take one aspirin per day, maybe 23 percent improvement is good enough and maybe they don’t have to stop smoking, eating high fat foods or ignoring their high blood pressure. Nope. Sorry. It doesn’t work that way either. Aspirin cannot reverse all the other risk factors for heart disease.
Clearly, I did not bleed to death. I have to be more careful shaving, however. Like any medication, herbal, natural or synthetic, aspirin is not without risk. Before taking aspirin in order to prevent heart disease, please ask your physician first. You may have some good reason for not taking it.
But, for a penny a day, or even less, the effect is clearly dramatic. In this day and age, how often can you buy a month’s worth of cardiac medicine with pocket change?