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American Morning

New Study Out Concludes by Taking Aspirin, You Might be Wiping Out Any Heart Protection Benefits You Thought You Were Getting

Aired December 20, 2001 - 07:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There's some important medical news to talk about this morning. Millions of Americans take aspirin every day to ward off heart attacks and strokes, but if you're one of them and you are also taking other common medications for aches and pains, you need to pay attention to this one.

A new study out concludes you might be wiping out any heart protection benefits you thought you were getting. Let's turn to Donald Rumsfeld. Sanjay Gupta who joins us now from Atlanta with more information. Boy this is a scary one doctor.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a - it's a really big study Paula. There's no question that an aspirin a day, as you say, may help keep the cardiologist away in this case, unless you're one of the millions of people who also take Ibuprofen for aches and pains.

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DR. GARRET FITZGERALD, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: We found that a common dose of Ibuprofen interfered with the ability of aspirin to afford (ph) cardio protection.

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GUPTA: Now aspirin has been one of the main stays - the gold stay (ph) therapy, if you will, to try and prevent heart attacks, as well as strokes. It does this by slightly thinning the blood. The problem is that millions of people also take Ibuprofen for tennis elbow, a painful knee, things like that. Dr. Garret Fitzgerald and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania were a little concerned about that.

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FITZGERALD: So many people are taking both low-dose aspirin and pain relievers. We felt it was important to address the possibility of an interaction between these classes of drugs that might undermine the effectiveness of aspirin as a cardio protective agent.

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GUPTA: Paula, it's a little complicated, but let's try and make it as simple as we can. Basically, in the bloodstream you have several different types of cells. One of the important types of cells are platelets. Sometimes when these platelets start to collect a number, they can actually aggregate or form clumps. As you see here, when these clumps start to form, they can actually completely block off a blood vessel. That can cause a heart attack, if it's in the coronary vessels or cause a stroke if it's in the carotid vessels, those vessels supplying the brain.

Now if you take aspirin, the aspirin will actually make those platelets less thicky, if you will, and prevent that clumping from occurring. What Dr. Fitzgerald and his colleagues found is that if you also take Ibuprofen, you actually block the mechanism of aspirin on those platelets so if the platelets are still allowed to clump and thus taking away some of the protective effects of aspirin. That is, again, only if you take both together.

ZAHN: So what's the bottom line here then?

GUPTA: The bottom line is that and this study was done over a period of several days, so if you're a person who takes an occasional Motrin, occasional Advil, something like that, there's really no problem. But if you're someone who takes Advil and Motrin everyday for aches and pains, in addition to your aspirin, you may want to talk to your doctor about possibly switching to a different pain reliever.

ZAHN: All right, that's very helpful to know. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks for this morning's house call.

GUPTA: Thank you.

ZAHN: Appreciate it.

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