Revised guidelines on daily aspirin for your heart

I read an article in Health news that reinforced what my Doctor has been telling me for years.

Who should take an aspirin each day to fight heart disease, and at what dose? The latest guidelines say that lower doses are as effective as higher doses and safer at preventing heart attack and stroke.

The new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines match age and gender. Aspirin seems to be more effective in men for preventing heart attack but, in women, better at preventing stroke.

Dr. Carl J. Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, added: "The benefits of aspirin use always have to be balanced against the risks. If a patient has low risk of events in the near future, aspirin should not be prescribed. If the risk is very high, clearly aspirin is needed."

The recommendations, published in the March 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, state:

Men aged 45 to 79 with heart risk factors should take aspirin if the preventive benefits outweigh the risk of bleeding.

At-risk women aged 55 to 79 should take aspirin if the odds of reducing a first ischemic stroke outweigh the chance of bleeding.

Men under the age of 45 and women under 55 who have never had a heart attack or stroke should not take aspirin for prevention.

At this time, it isn't clear whether patients aged 80 and older should take aspirin.

The task force emphasized that the recommendations only apply to people who have never had a heart attack or stroke.

The last task force recommendations came out in 2002. At the time, the panel acknowledged that the evidence for the use of aspirin in preventing heart problems was still evolving.

A second paper in the same issue of the journal reaffirms the task force guidelines, finding that lower doses of daily aspirin (75 milligrams to 81 milligrams) are equally, if not more effective, than higher doses (100 mg or more) in preventing heart attack and stroke in at-risk individuals

The paper also found that high doses may actually do more harm, especially in people taking Plavix.

According to background information in the study, aspirin is the most used drug worldwide to prevent heart attack and stroke. More than one-third of U.S. adults are believed to take aspirin each day.

"All these trials put together really favor taking lower doses of aspirin," said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Flaxseed Another Heart Helper

I have been taking Fish oil to provide extra amounts of omega-3 as a therapy for avoiding heart issues. What I have learned recently is that Flaxseed oil also provides the daily food requirements for omega-3 in a dietary fashion.

Flax oil can help balance the lower amount of dietary omega-3 currently in our food supply. Flaxseed is the richest plant source of the omega-3 polyunsaturated fat, alpha linolenic acid (called ALA for short). Although some have tried to claim that fish oil and flaxseed oil have different effects on cardiovascular health, clinical data obtained from nine major trials showed that ALA can produce dramatic, beneficial effects on our heart health too.

Researchers in Canada have found that an increased intake of ALA in humans leads to a decreased risk for heart disease, lower incidence of heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and most importantly, a decreased risk of death from all causes. The effects were not small and the studies measured these effects in 600 to over 76,000 subjects. The risk of heart disease was reduced by up to 70%, the risk of having a heart attack was reduced by 75%, and the risk of having a stroke was reduced by up to 60%.

The results have shown a role for flaxseed and ALA in blocking irregular heart beats associated with heart attacks and slowing the process of blockages in arteries (known as atherosclerosis) which cause heart attacks and stroke. The research data obtained from experimental work at the laboratory and from clinical trials from all over the world is becoming clear: ALA from flaxseed oil appears to be an excellent protective means to help in the fight against heart disease!
Flaxseed oil is available in either liquid or capsule form.

How you choose to take it is really up to you. Flaxseed oil is usually described as having a mild, nutty taste. The capsules are much easier to take on business trips or vacations, and their shelf life is much longer than the liquid flaxseed oil. Many people end up buying both the liquid and the capsules.

For me, even though the fish oil is healthy, I could do without the after taste, and when I tried the flax tablets, decided that it was time to switch.

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