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Dr. Kim Mulvihill reportingTaking an aspirin a day can help protect you against heart attacks or strokes.
But the degree of protection may really depend on your gender.
Millions of Americans take aspirin every day for a very good reason.
“I'm hoping it will prevent me from getting a heart attack or stroke."
Nancy Kierson, Takes Aspirin: "I kind of think of it as an insurance policy."
Jeffrey Berger, MD, Duke Medical Center "So all these guidelines came out to say that aspirin is effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular events. But in reality we really had very little data on what the effect of aspirin was in women "
Now new research shows aspirin does not work the same for everyone. How aspirin actually helps your cardiovascular health differs, and depends upon your sex.
The study first looked at aspirin's effect on heart attack. Men saw a 32 percent reduced risk, but in women, there was no real protection. Then, researchers studied the drug's effect on stroke and found the opposite. There was no real effect in men, but women saw a 24 percent reduced risk.
David Brown, MD, researcher "We were quite surprised that there was such a striking difference in the beneficial effect of aspirin between men and women."
Jeffrey Berger, MD, Duke Medical Center: “Aspirin taken in its totality is really a wonderful medication. It is both cheap, readily available and pretty safe”
Experts suspect hormones may play a key role. But until more is know, for some people taking aspirin, these results are hard to swallow.
Ruth Toritto "I've always thought, in terms of heart attack, that aspirin would be more preventative towards heart attack than towards stroke."
But there is good news. Researchers saw a benefit with aspirin regardless of the dose. So it makes sense to take the lowest dose possible - that's 81 milligrams a day - to reduce the risk of potential side effects.
The downside to aspirin is an increased risk of bleeding in the stomach or intestine. This needs to be weighed against the preventive value of the medicine.
