“But, stewardess, I’m not having a heart attack, I have a headache!”
The AMA recommends chewing a full strength (not time release or “arthritis formula”) , 325mg aspirin at first onset of chest pain. This is a standing order from most EMS units, as well. Here is a short article from Harvard on chewing vs swallowing during an attack.
Other than “The Doctors” and Dr Oz, I don’t have a cite for taking low dose aspirin at night. They mentioned a study, but I don’t remember where it was done or when.
81 mg/day here.
FWIW, on the heels of an email factoid to this effect a while back, I asked my g.p. specifically whether it mattered when I take my aspirin. He told me flatly that it does not.
But this may be the research in question:
They cite Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 46, page 975, September 20, 2005 as their source.
And it is worth noting that the cited effect is a decrease in hypertension, not a decrease in heart attacks or severity thereof.
Another article about timing.
So night dosing does have some benefits for blood pressure control and it may result in better platelet aggregation effects, especially at the time of day that most fatal MIs tend to occur, but data proving any assertion that timing affects mortality rates seem to not yet be extant, only implied. Probably it is more important (for those who are appropriately on aspirin) that it is taken at a time of day that it remembered to be taken.
Especially don’t mix OTC medicines with prescribed ones and “natural” medicine. They all have some degree of side effect and many don’t play well together. My doc just prescribed Effexor for me but was kind enough to give me the stats to read. Lo and behold, I shouldn’t take it because of my blood pressure. At least this doc knows he can trust me to read up on things for myself. I called and he apologized. We are going to wait a bit and see if my new exercise routine helps with the blood pressure as well as the depression.
It is one of 6 different medicines I was ordered to take after having a heart stent 2 years ago. Later I read that those controlling blood pressure and cholesterol with drugs are no more likely to have heart attacks than those getting stents. So if I still have to take pills by the handful, why the expensive, risky stent? Wallet surgery?
Perhaps I should rethink taking prophylactic aspirin (when I remember to.) I’ve never been advised to do so, I just thought it was generally a good idea for someone over 50/post menopausal. My bp usually hovers around 90/60 so it’s probably of no benefit to me.
The thing is Americans have a tendency to over medicate. They think that if a baby aspirin is good for the heart a regular one must be better. And while 325 is usually the regular dose, the studies I’ve seen say that taking more, provides no additional benefit, so why take any more?
Aspirin can be given to young people
From the US government
The risk of Reyes Syndrome comes with the fever. If you have a headache or you hurt your thumb or something like that, it’s OK to take aspirin if you’re young. It’s especially bad if you have chickenpox or the flu.
I don’t except when I fly. That is to prevent deep vein thrombosis.
The real risk comes when you don’t *know *your child is incubating a viral illness (not just chicken pox or flu, but even just a cold can do it) and doesn’t look sick yet. Kids have this tendency to seem fine during the incubation and prodromal periods of an illness and then to “suddenly” get sick all at once. Headaches are often a precursor to or a symptom of a viral illness, so I wouldn’t suggest you give a child an aspirin for a headache even if they don’t have a fever.
Reyes Syndrome kills more than a third of the kids who get it. Why take the risk when ibuprofen is readily available and works just as well for most kids?