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Heart Beat: No one-size-fits-all for aspirin and elders

Heart Beat

No one-size-fits-all for aspirin and elders

If you’re over age 70 and don’t have heart disease, you might want to think twice before taking a daily aspirin for your heart.

Among people with heart disease, regardless of age, aspirin is a proven strategy for keeping heart attacks and clot-related (ischemic) strokes at bay. Among healthy individuals, though, aspirin’s side effects may offset its benefits.

Australian researchers used a computer model to test what would happen if 20,000 healthy men and women between the ages of 70 and 74 started taking a daily low-dose aspirin. The model was programmed to follow each individual until death or age 100.

On average, aspirin prevented 765 heart attacks and clot-caused strokes. It also caused 1,201 cases of major gastrointestinal bleeding and bleeding (hemorrhagic) strokes. The results appeared in the June 4, 2005, British Medical Journal.

We say “on average” because the model was repeated many times, with different results. The range of results means it is impossible to make a blanket statement about which healthy individuals should and should not take aspirin. It also underscores the need for a clinical trial such as the planned Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly trial.

That study won’t yield results until about 2010. Until then, don’t assume that a daily aspirin is right for you. Talk with your doctor about your own benefit-risk balance sheet.

Last updated:	August 21, 2006