Aspirin is a widely known and frequently used medicine, often taken to reduce pain, inflammation, and fever. It’s also commonly prescribed to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes, especially in people with certain heart conditions.
However, a new study from researchers at the University of Freiburg suggests that taking aspirin might increase the risk of heart failure in some individuals.
Heart failure is a serious and long-term condition where the heart struggles to pump blood as effectively as it should. When the heart can’t pump blood properly, it leads to various symptoms like shortness of breath, feeling unusually tired, and swelling in the legs and ankles.
People with heart failure often face challenges in their daily lives because their heart is not able to meet the body’s needs.
There are many reasons why someone might develop heart failure. Common causes include high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary artery disease (which affects the blood flow to the heart), and problems with heart valves.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for heart failure. However, with the right treatment, including changes to lifestyle, medications, and sometimes surgery, it is possible to manage the symptoms and improve the quality of life for those affected.
The research team from the University of Freiburg wanted to understand if taking aspirin could affect the risk of developing heart failure, especially in people who already had one or more risk factors for the condition.
To explore this, they looked at data from a large group of 30,827 people.
All these participants were at risk for heart failure due to factors like smoking, being overweight, having high blood pressure or cholesterol levels, diabetes, or existing heart disease. Importantly, none of them had been diagnosed with heart failure at the start of the study.
These participants were all over the age of 40, and the study followed them for five years. At the beginning of the study, the researchers recorded whether or not the participants were taking aspirin.
The participants were then divided into two groups: those who used aspirin and those who did not.
Over the five years, 1,330 participants developed heart failure. The researchers discovered that people who were taking aspirin had a 26% higher chance of being diagnosed with heart failure compared to those who were not taking aspirin.
This finding was significant and remained consistent even after the researchers made sure to compare people with similar health conditions and excluded those with a history of cardiovascular disease.
The results of this study suggest that aspirin might not be as harmless as previously thought, especially for people who are already at risk of heart failure.
Dr. Blerim Mujaj, who led the study, and his team believe that doctors should be cautious when prescribing aspirin to people who either have heart failure or are at risk of developing it.
They emphasized that more research is needed to fully understand the potential risks and benefits of aspirin use.
The fact that one in four people in the study was taking aspirin underlines the importance of this research. While aspirin is often seen as a simple and safe medicine, this study highlights the need to consider individual risks before deciding to use it regularly.
The findings were published in the journal ESC Heart Failure, contributing to a growing body of research that urges a more personalized approach to medication use, especially in managing chronic health conditions like heart failure.
If you care about heart health, please read studies showing that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
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