Daily Aspirin Regimen May be More 'Harmful' Than Good

It is no secret that aspirin has been toted as a drug that can lower ones risk for cardiovascular disease. If you watch television you have probably seen commercials by companies such as Bayer that actually make low dose aspirin for daily use. While aspirin is admittedly the drug one would want to have in their cabinet in the event of a cardiovascular event, it has long been questioned among holistic practitioners for its daily therapeutic effect. This reservation among wellness practitioners is finally being answered by a recent study looking at the effects of daily aspirin therapy on cardiovascular events.

In a study called Aspirin for Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis conducted in central Scotland, researchers found that the daily use of aspirin does more harm than good and actually doubles the risk of being admitted to the hospital for bleeding. This study did not attempt to look at aspirin use among people who have had heart attacks or strokes, but among those in the general public who simply take over the counter low dose aspirin for 'better health'.

So what exactly does aspirin do and why do natural practitioners believe it is a backdoor approach to the cardiovascular problem? Aspirin works at thinning the blood via an anti-platelet effect. It prevents the platelets in your blood from sticking together; under normal circumstances these platelets adhere to sites of injuries to clot and prevent bleeding. Now previous studies have suggested that the culprit for cardiovascular disease is the high level of homocysteine in the blood; this homocysteine damages the lining of your vessels increasing the tendency of your blood to become 'sticky'. So platelets, cholesterol and other things of the sort begin to aggregate and form clots in the blood vessels increasing the risk for a heart attack or stroke. So while aspirin can effectively work at reducing the clots forming in the blood much of naturopathic approach has been focused on the damaging effects of high homocysteine levels in the blood.

Is daily aspirin use for you? If you are at risk of having a cardiovascular event you should certainly explore the benefits of 'thinning your blood' with aspirin or other natural agents such as garlic. You should definitely speak with a professional of your choice.