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Aspirin Can Help Prevent Recurring Strokes

By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 11, 2005

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Aspirin seems to work a bit better than the blood thinner coumadin in preventing certain kinds of strokes. That's according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctors studied 569 people who had a stroke or near-stroke (TIA) due to a special problem -- a narrow artery in their brains versus, say, a clot from the heart.

The gave half the group coumadin and the other half high doses of aspirin up to four or five times a day.

The aspirin group did so much better they had to stop the study. Ten percent of those on coumadin (warfarin) died from a second stroke within two years versus only four percent on aspirin. The coumadin group also suffered from heart attack and bleeding.

Now this study is important -- about 100,000 people a year have strokes due to narrow brain arteries and doctors haven't always been clear on how to treat them. Aspirin seems to work better than coumadin; still, the doses were high and could cause internal bleeding.

So, if you've had a stroke, talk to your doctor about aspirin versus coumadin.

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