Hello again, readers! Though probably this topic would have been not as hearty as the other topics, since we are going to discuss mainly about heart disease. But do not be afraid! It is better to know something than to know nothing about what you are having! Besides, we are going to discuss one way to treat the disease you probably already familiar with. Yes, you’re right we are going to talk about aspirin!
For the past years, heart disease (or scientifically known as cardiovascular disease) has been a common disease worldwide. With rapid increase of obesity throughout the world population for the recent years, WHO and many other healthcare groups have raised awareness of this particularly deadly disease, obviously conducting years of research devoted in finding the cure for it.
Despite not being the magic cure, aspirin has been generally known as one of the drugs often taken by patient with heart problems. Many benefits have been found by taking aspirin for heart disease medication. However, ideally aspirin should not be taken without any doctor’s suggestion or prescription. Shall you have doubt in any kind of other medical condition one should pay attention of, please do meet your personal doctor before conducting any aspirin therapy.
Although the benefits of aspirin varied for each person, I am going to list down what are generally perceived as the benefits of aspirin.
Without further ado, let us discuss about what are these benefits from taking aspirin for treating heart disease.
1. Antiplatelet
If you have blood vessel or heart related disease, there is a common type of treatment that will most likely be offered to you, called blood thinners. There are two primary types of blood thinners, anticoagulant (i.e.: heparin and warfarin) and antiplatelet, such as aspirin.
Anticoagulant works through chemical reactions on our body to delay the process of blood clotting, while antiplatelet such as aspirin will prevent blood platelet from clumping each other thus reducing the risk of having a blood clot.
While both is necessary for and very important if you have a heart related disease it is also to be taken into consideration if you are prone to hemorrhagic stroke (where your weakened blood vessels ruptures) as it may cause more pressure and cause more bleeding when the rupture happens as it prevents the blood from clotting and clamping in the damaged area.
2. Prevent blood clots
Still related to what we discussed In the first point, being an antiplatelet, aspirin will prevent the blood platelet from forming a clot. This mechanism is typically taking place when you are having a wound (in any parts of your body) and the blood system tries to prevent itself to bleed further (protecting the body from more blood loss).
Even though, in some cases (see: hemorrhage stroke, gastrointestinal bleeding) this might happen to be the disadvantage but for people having heart disease especially along with atherosclerosis (a condition in which lipid compound starts to build up along the blood vessels narrowing the blood pathway, which can dangerously lead to increasing in pressure of the aorta near the heart valve or the arteries that supplies oxygen to the brain).
In the long term the lipid plaque will cause the weakening and hardening of the blood vessels wall. When blood clots appear all of these situations can lead to a heart attack. This is the reason why aspirin role in preventing blood clotting becomes very important.
3. Decreases inflammation
When a plaque builds up along your arteries, it has the possibility of being inflamed. This inflammation will most certainly lead you to be prone to stroke and heart attack.
Aspirin role in this particular situation is to block the enzyme called cycloozygenase which is responsible of the production of prostaglandins, a chemicals compound expediting inflammatory.
4. Reduce the risk of heart damage.
Blood plays a very important role in carrying out nutrients all around our body, this including heart and brain. Other than nutrients blood also carry oxygen for every single cell in our body, which play a crucial role in maintaining a good, healthy and functioning organ.
Lack of oxygen especially in brain and heart may lead to high blood pressure and stroke. Since the main function of aspirin is maintaining a good blood flow in your blood system (making sure there is no clog).
Correlatively, aspirin helps patient to maintain a stable flow of oxygen (especially if they already have narrowing blood vessels that lessen the amount of blood that could pass through.), preventing more clogging which can cut the oxygen flow and reducing the risk of unnecessary damage to the heart and brain.
5. Decrease the probability of having a stroke.
Still related closely to the points above. We can conclude that aspirin role in maintaining a good blood flow and helping our body to prevent blood clotting.
This will lessen the chance of the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the brain and the one that utilize the heart to be clogged. When a part of these vessels are clogged the pump of the blood creates pressure and may lead to the rupture of the vessel itself, which we commonly address as having a stroke.
Which is why it is imperative to take aspirin as a way to lessen the chance of having a stroke, be it near the heart or the brain.
6. Reduce the risk of death by heart attack.
During heart attack which is caused by clogging of blood vessels, the role of aspirin in preventing and slowing down more blood clot may reduce the severity of the heart attack itself. Making sure there is still a blood flow and oxygen supply.
According to a lot of scientific research, taking an aspirin during or right after the symptom takes place reduce, the risk of death from heart attack.
7. Lower the chance of having a recurrence of heart attack.
It is very important to not stop taking aspirin medication after having a heart attack, as it will maintain your blood flow and again prevent further clogging.
It will make you to be less likely in having a second heart attack. Aspirin will actually help you not to get worse from the condition you are in at the moment.
Other Uses
1. An analgesic.
Besides being effective in preventing blood clot, aspirin has also been proven to have an analgesic attribute. Aspirin has been known for its usage in treating and alleviating acute pain, thus promoting it to be one of pain relief drugs. Though it is not working as effective as other drugs like ibuprofen but it is generally used to treat pain other than pains caused by muscle cramps, bloating, gastric distension, and skin irritation.
2. Treating headache.
Being one of pain relievers aspirin has been widely used to treat a range of primary headaches, such as tension headache, migraines and cluster headache. Though, it is proven to be most effective in treating for tension headache.
3. Treating fever.
Besides its ability in controlling pain, aspirin has another usability in treating fever. When consuming an aspirin it will act on the prostaglandin system to irreversibly inhibits COX which will reduce the inflammation that causes the fever.
Precautions
Though there are a lot of benefits from taking aspirin therapy. There are some precautions that needed to be paid attention to whether you should or should not take this medication. Aspirin may not suitable for:
- Women in pregnancy (Please consult to your doctor first to prevent harming your baby)
- People who is allergic to aspirin
- People who have (uncontrolled) high blood pressure
- Stomach sensitive individual (People who are prone to gastric problem)
- People who is having a stroke (that is not caused by blood clots)
There are also some side effects in taking aspirin. Some of the common ones are stomach pain/discomfort and nausea. Severe side effects might include one of the allergic reactions (trouble breathing, swelling, and hives) and bleedings (abnormal bleeding including nosebleeds, vaginal bleeding, rectal bleeding, bloody urine and in some rare cases bleeding in the brain).
Due to reasons above, please refrain on consuming aspirin regularly or in high dose without talking to your doctor first. It is important to know about individual medical condition before taking any medication. Meanwhile, you can practice a healthy lifestyle to prevents heart problems, such as engaging in physical activity at least 30 minutes per day, eat healthy foods, and avoid tobacco!