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The best time to take an aspirin, to lower the risk of having a heart attack
The time of the day, you want to stop platelet MOBBING is FIRST THING IN THE MORNING. To do this, you should be taking aspirin with dinner, NOT breakfast.
You’re worried about dying of a heart attack.
Maybe your doctor is worried about this too and has prescribed a daily baby aspirin, as a PRECAUTION. The biology behind the PRECAUTION, stems from the fact that taking aspirin, takes away the ability of platelets, to produce thromboxane.
With no thromboxane, the platelet is anti-social.
It won’t get together with friends…………
A mob of platelets
Since you need a mob of platelets, to form a clot, block blood vessels, the risk of a block in a blood vessel, is significantly lower, when taking aspirin.
Now blocks in blood vessels are NOT all bad !
Should there be a pipe burst or rupture, those blocks become life saving.
But, when they happen in “the wrong” place, which is usually brought on by a case of bad body chemistry, the block can be tickets, because….
Starved of oxygen
The cells in the vicinity of the block, find themselves WITHOUT OXYGEN.
And oxygen IS A REQUIREMENT, for life.
This applies to individual cells and you the whole person.
It’s a fine balance
Now rendering your platelets in-operable, does have some risk, but sometimes the benefits, outweigh the risks.
NOTE : This really is something you should discuss with your doctor. Just because you can buy aspirin at the local supermarket, does not mean a baby aspirin a day, is the “right” strategy for you.
But when it is……………
You want to maximize the aspirin benefit.
And to do this, it helps to understand the biology.
Platelets are LARKS
Seriously…………. these little guys, typically MOB early in the morning.
We know this, because more cardiovascular events happen between 6 am and noon. And morning events, tend to be more damaging, than events that happen later in the day.
So the time of the day, you want to stop platelet MOBBING is ……….
FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.
Start you day with an aspirin
Well this is the recommendation, but, biology is complicated………..
The problem, aspirin doesn’t work, 24/7.
You see, when you swallow the pill, with breakfast, the aspirin gets to work quickly.
NOTE : And you should swallow your aspirin pill with some food………….. an unaccompanied aspirin, can burn a hole in your gut lining.
It turns platelets anti-social
INSTANTLY.
90 % of the platelets, present in the blood, when the aspirin arrives, are impacted.
But the aspirin doesn’t stick around for long. In the average person, most of the aspirin will be gone by dinner time.
And by dinner time, there’ll be new platelet arrivals.
Exactly how many, will depend on your body chemistry. Unfortunately, if your body chemistry is NOT GOOD, there’ll be quite a lot more……….
Remember, platelets are LIFE SAVING !
Late in the evening
The swell in brand new rearing to go platelets, means there are now more platelets available, for a platelet GET-TOGETHER. And since you’re NOT MOVING, all that much at 3 am in the morning, the possibility of a stick up, rises, significantly.
And with it…………… the risk of a cardiovascular event. Eish !
So can we time things differently ?
This is what a team of Polish researchers wondered – would taking aspirin in the evening, be better ?
Morning versus evening aspirin
They tested out their theory in people, who were taking an aspirin a day, because they had been diagnosed with CAD i.e. they were at a high risk of suffering a cardiovascular event.
The ability of these people’s platelets to aggregate in the lab was measured.
Here are the results…
Change in Aspirin Reaction Units (ARU) following 3 months of taking aspirin at different times of the day. Copyright 2019 Via Medica
Taking aspirin really does lower the ability of the platelets to aggregate, no matter what time of the day, you take it.
But to maximize the effect, it is better to take it in the evening.
Especially if you are a lady….
Aspirin therapy for women
When the researchers analysed their results, according to gender, they found, morning aspirin, actually made things “worse” for ladies, not “better”.
Change in Aspirin Reaction Units (ARU) in men versus women. Copyright 2019 Via Medica
Now this is not actually a big surprise.
Numerous studies have hinted that taking aspirin, is not all that helpful for women…..this because the biology of heart disease in men and women, is different.
When you take your aspirin
Matters…..
If you’ taking an aspirin a day, to lower your risk of a cardiovascular event, then it might be prudent to take your pill, with dinner.
Especially if you’re a lady !
NOTE : Not all cardiovascular events are a result of BLOCKS, some are BLEEDS. Opting to take an aspirin prophylactically is a “big” decision, discuss it with your physician.
Further reading
Dipping into high blood pressure – are you solving the problem ?
The time you want your blood pressure to be LOW, is not when you’ve visiting your doctor, you need it to be low, when you’re SLEEPING. What is your asleep BP ?
Watch out, aspirin burns holes in your stomach
Some people feel the burn when they take an aspirin, but even tough guys are being burned by the pill. Aspirin can’t help it, that is how it works.
Blood vessels clog up when they become sticky
A special non-stick layer, known as the glycocalyx, prevents things from sticking to the sides of blood vessels. When it’s not there, atherosclerosis happens.