If you're a heart patient who takes aspirin daily to protect your heart, researchers strongly advise to keep taking the drug. New findings reveal that stopping aspirin can boost the risk of a heart attack by nearly two-thirds.
In a new study published July 19, patients with a history of heart disease who stopped taking a low-dose daily aspirin had a 60 percent increased risk of having a heart attack over a three-year evaluation, compared with patients who continued their daily aspirin regimen.
The study supports prior research with similar findings, but study researcher Luis A. Garcia Rodriguez, director of the Spanish Center for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research in Madrid, noted that previous studies evaluated patients in a hospital, whereas his research focused on heart patients at home.
The findings come from a UK database of nearly 40,000 patients who had been prescribed the drug by their physicians. The study is published online in the British Medical Journal.
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4094
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