Health Blog

Daily aspirin therapy has prevented untold numbers of heart attacks in people at risk, including those with heart disease. But doctors have been reluctant to prescribe aspirin for people with high blood pressure and no other cardiac risk factors.

That’s because aspirin’s anticlotting properties raise the risk of dangerous bleeding, and people with hypertension are already at higher risk for stroke, so aspirin might put them in danger of having a bleeding stroke.

But a very large study in the June 13 Lancet — actually a side arm of a study done to investigate other aspects of hypertension — suggests that aspirin therapy is safe for people with high blood pressure and helps prevent heart attacks.

More than 9,000 volunteers with hypertension took 75 mg of aspirin daily for an average of four years; another 9,000 took dummy pills.

At the end of the study, the aspirin group suffered a third fewer heart attacks than the placebo group but had no additional strokes. People taking aspirin did have more nonfatal bleeding, however, particularly in the nose and gastrointestinal tract.

Because of this risk of bleeding, anyone contemplating aspirin therapy should ask their doctor whether it’s safe. But these findings suggest that people with treated hypertension aren’t at any special risk from aspirin — and may well benefit from the drug’s ability to ward off heart attacks.

Filed under:
Health by Candice