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Aspirin is the only over-the-counter
medication that has been proven to help prevent cardiovascular
disease in persons who have suffered a first heart attack
or a transient ischemic attack or who have unstable
angina.
In 1985 U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approved the use of aspirin to prevent heart attacks
in patients who had either suffered a previous heart
attack or suffered from unstable angina. The FDA's decision
was based on a significant body of evidence showing
that aspirin reduced the risk of a second heart attack
by 20 percent. For patients suffering from unstable
angina, the risk of a heart attack decreased by 51 percent.
Aspirin helps reduce the risk of heart
attack by diminishing the clotting action of blood platelets.
A heart attack is known in medical
terms as a myocardial infarction. In a heart attack,
the blood supply to the myocardium (the heart muscle)
is either blocked or severely reduced.
This blockage of the blood supply
to the heart muscle can be caused by either a blood
clot that becomes wedged in a coronary artery or by
the build up of plaque within the arteries themselves.
The length of time that the blood supply is blocked
or severely reduced to the heart muscle may determine
if the heart muscle is significantly weakened or even
suffers cell death.
Aspirin's anti-coagulant ability lessens
the chances of clot formation and reduces the ability
of platelets to block arteries narrowed by accumulated
plaque.
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