Preventive Cardiology: Aspirin
Commonly Used Brand Name and Generic Aspirins
- Pain relief
- Fever reduction
- Reducing the risk of dying when having a heart attack
- Preventing a heart attack or stroke
Mechanism for How It Works
- Analgesic/NSAID—This inhibits the body’s production of a hormone-like substance called prostaglandin. This chemical causes pain by stimulating muscles contractions and blood vessel dilation. Aspirin may also fight inflammation, including in plaque caused by atherosclerosis, which causes coronary artery disease.
- Antithrombotic (blood thinning)/Platelet aggregation inhibitor—This prevents platelets from releasing the prostaglandin thromboxane, which causes platelets to clump together in a blood clot. This helps prevent potentially fatal formation of new blood clots in diseased blood vessels.
- Other blood thinners
- Oral medications used to treat diabetes
- Other NSAIDs
- Potassium citrate
- Dong quai
- St. John's Wort
- White willow
Other Potential Concerns
- Liver or kidney disease
- Peptic ulcer or other gastrointestinal bleeding disorder, or those at risk for these disorders
- Allergy or intolerance to aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- Hemophilia or other bleeding problems—the chance of bleeding may be increased
- Gout —salicylates can make this condition worse and can also lessen the effects of some medications used to treat gout
- Syndrome of asthma, rhinitis, and nasal polyps
- Children and adolescents with a viral infection
- Pregnant or lactating women
American Heart Association http://www.heart.org
US Food and Drug Administration http://www.fda.gov
Health Canada http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada http://www.heartandstroke.com
Antiplatelet agents for secondary prevention of stroke. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed. Updated May 26, 2014. Accessed December 12, 2014.
Aspirin. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed. Updated November 2, 2012. Accessed December 14, 2012.
Aspirin and heart disease. American Heart Association website. Available at: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/PreventionTreatmentofHeartAttack/Aspirin-and-Heart-Disease%5FUCM%5F321714%5FArticle.jsp. November 17, 2014. Accessed December 12, 2014.
Aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed. Updated March 27, 2014. Accessed December 12, 2014.
Holmes MD, Chen WY. Hiding in plan view: The potential for commonly used drugs to reduce breast cancer mortality. Breast Cancer Res. 2012;14(2):216.
McCowan C, Munro AJ, et al. Use of aspirin post-diagnosis in a cohort of patients with colorectal cancer and its association with all-cause and colorectal cancer specific mortality. Eur J Cancer. 2012;49(5):1049-1057.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. EBSCO Natural and Alternative Treatments website. Available at: http://www.ebscohost.com/biomedical-libraries/natural-alternative-treatments. Updated September 18, 2014. Accessed December 12, 2014.
Reimers MS, Bastiaannet E, et al. Aspirin use after diagnosis improves survival in older adults with colon cancer: a retrospective cohort study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2012;60(12):2232-2236.
- Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD
- Review Date: 12/2014 -
- Update Date: 12/12/2014 -