Aspirin, Strokes And Heart Attacks - What You Should Know

A few years ago, my doctor recommended I take one 75mg dispersible aspirin every day. He suspected, at the time, I'd had a TIA, or a Transient Ischemic Attack to give its full title.

A TIA is the medical term for stroke-like symptoms that occur and resolve spontaneously within 24 hours. Sometimes it's called a mini stroke and doctors take TIA's seriously because they could be an indication of a full stroke in the near future.

Aspirin thins the blood and as strokes and heart attacks can be caused by blood clots, small doses have often been prescribed as a preventative measure.

As it happened, my symptoms at the time were the beginning of mercury poisoning caused by my dental amalgams, BUT I continued on the aspirin until fairly recently when I got terrible burning sensations in my stomach.

I went back to the doctor and this time was advised to stop taking the Aspirin. My stomach problems disappeared, and today, I discovered why.

On the BBC news this morning, it was revealed taking Aspirin, even in small doses, for a long period of time can cause bleeds in the stomach. The advice now, is unless you've already had a heart attack or stroke, Aspirin can do more harm than good.

It was suggested people on Aspirin for high blood pressure, cholesterol, or DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) may see little benefit, as although it can help prevent secondary clots in the arteries to the heart, it doesn't have the same effect in veins.

If you're reading this and are on prescribed daily low doses of Aspirin, you might want to go back to your doctor and seek updated medical advice.

Oh, and another thing, apparently Aspirin should NOT be given to anyone under sixteen, which makes me wonder where the term "Junior Aspirin" comes from.

Anyway, here are a few tips on recognising a stroke as sometimes symptoms are difficult to identify, and often the lack of awareness can result in brain damage.

Doctors now say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

3. Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call the emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

Remember the term F.A.S.T., which stands for FACE, ARMS, SPEECH, TIME.

Now for some information on surviving a heart attack. I'm sure this is a terribly frightening experience especially if you're alone, so here's some information I received via e-mail some time ago, which may be of interest.

Often the first signs of a heart attack are severe pain in the chest, which starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw.

Even if you've been trained in CPR, it's hard to perform it on yourself, and without help, a person whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, you could help yourself by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough.

The cough must be deep and prolonged, like when you produce sputum from deep inside the chest.

And a cough must be repeated about every 2 seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm.

In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

Please tell as many other people as possible about this article, as it could save their lives.

Take care.