Many studies have harped on the heart-protective benefits of aspirin. Now, a new study has corroborated those claims and has also discovered that the drug affects men and women's heart health differently.
Under the study, researchers reviewed studies conducted on around 95,000 men and women between 1966 and 2000 and found that use of aspirin reduced the chances of a stroke in women and of heart attacks in men.
“Aspirin is a drug that has been used for many years – it is well-understood, effective, inexpensive and widely available. Our findings are particularly noteworthy in that aspirin's main beneficial effects appeared to be the reduction in the risk of stroke for women and reduction in the risk of heart attacks for men,” said Dr Jeffrey Berger, a cardiologist at the Duke University Medical Center and lead author of the study.
Dr Berger, in collaboration with Dr David Brown of Stony Brook University Hospital and other researchers, analyzed data in the earlier studies and found that the effect of aspirin on the platelets, which are colorless, anuclear, discoid sticky cells in the blood, varied according to the gender.
In women taking aspirin, the clotting effects of platelets were lowered to a lesser extent than in men on aspirin. “Aspirin affects platelets differently in men and women. Nobody has any ideas about the cause of the difference,” Dr Brown said.
An analysis of the health of the 51,342 women in the review showed that regular use of aspirin led to a 12 per cent reduced risk of strokes. Around 625 strokes and 469 heart attacks were reported in the women during the study period. In the 44,114 men studied, the risk of heart attacks fell by 14 per cent due to aspirin use. About 597 instances of strokes and 1,023 of heart attacks were seen in this gender group. None of the study subjects had a history of heart trouble.
“This (the findings) is good news because many of the past studies of the effect of aspirin in preventing cardiovascular events looked only at men, so physicians were reluctant to prescribe aspirin for women because there was little data. But now, the combined data of recent trials involving women demonstrates that women can benefit just as much from aspirin therapy as men,” Dr Berger added.
He, however, cautioned against starting on aspirin therapy without further in-depth research in wake of reports that aspirin can cause major internal bleeding in some cases. Regular use of aspirin for an average of 6.4 years was associated with internal bleeding in 2.5 women out of every 1,000 in the study. In males, the bleeding cases were 3 per 1,000 men. “While we believe that more people could benefit from taking aspirin, it is important for patients and doctors to discuss the issue and weigh the benefits and potential drawbacks of aspirin therapy,” Dr Berger asserted.
Reacting to the study, Dr Nieca Goldberg, who heads New York's Lenox Hill Hospital's women heart health department, said, “This adds to the continued research that men and women are different.”
Added British Heart Foundation spokesperson Belinda Linden, “There are clear benefits from taking aspirin if you have, or are at high risk of having, heart and circulatory disease.”
But she echoed Dr Berger's concerns about increased use of the drug among the general public. “Although we must always be aware of new research in this important area, it should be noted that aspirin can occasionally lead to bleeding or an allergic reaction and therefore should only be prescribed when its benefits clearly outweigh the risks,” Linden added.
However, Dr Charles H Hennekens, of the Center of Excellence at Florida Atlantic University, remained skeptical of the study's findings. “We simply need more (research),” he said.
The findings of the study have been published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
