People aged 75 years or older who take aspirin a day to avoid heart attacks are at risk of severe or even fatal bleeding and should take intestinal acid drugs to reduce risk, a 10-year study found.
Previous studies have shown that between 40 percent and 60 percent of those over 75 in Europe and the United States are taking aspirin daily, but the effect of long-term use in older people is still unclear as most clinical trials include patients under 75 years of age.
But the study, published on Wednesday, was evenly divided between patients over 75 and younger patients, with a total of 3166 Britons who had heart attacks or strokes and were taking anticoagulants to prevent recurrence. According to Reuters.
The results do not mean that older patients should stop taking aspirin but recommend a wider use of intestinal acid drugs called proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole, which can reduce the risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding by between 70 and 90 percent.
While aspirin, which was discovered at the Bayer Bavey Laboratory in 1897 and now widely available in pharmacies, is generally harmless, bleeding has long been considered a threat.
Anti-platelet drugs such as aspirin prevent the return of five heart attacks and strokes, but also caused about 3,000 deaths a year in Britain alone due to bleeding, said Peter Rothwell, a co-author of the study.
Most of these persons were over the age of 75.