According to the Task Force, adults over the age of 60 should not take aspirin daily to prevent a heart attack.

Elderly people without heart disease should not take low doses of aspirin daily to prevent their first heart attack or stroke, an influential health guideline group released preliminary updated advice on Tuesday. I mentioned in.

The risk of bleeding in adults over the age of 60 who do not have a heart attack or stroke outweighs the potential benefits of aspirin, the US Preventive Medicine Expert Board said in a draft guidance.

For the first time, the panel said that adults in their 40s who are not at risk of bleeding may have a small benefit. For people in their 50s, the panel softened the advice, saying the evidence of profit was less clear.

Recommendations are for people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, or other conditions that increase the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke. Dr. Jungwon, a member of the Task Force, a primary care expert at Tufts Medical Center, says adults, regardless of age, need to discuss aspirin discontinuation or initiation with their doctors to ensure that aspirin is the right choice. Said there is.

“Use of aspirin can cause serious harm and the risk increases with age,” he said.

Once confirmed, advice to the elderly reverts to the recommendations issued by the Panel in 2016 to help prevent the first heart attack and stroke, but with more recent guidelines from other medical groups. Match.

Doctors have long recommended low-dose daily aspirin for many patients who have already had a heart attack or stroke. Task Force guidance does not change that advice.

The Task Force has previously stated that daily aspirin may also protect against colorectal cancer in some adults in their 50s and 60s, but the latest guidance requires additional evidence of some benefit. It states that there is.

Guidance was posted online to allow public comments until November 8. The group evaluates the input and makes the final decision.

An independent committee of disease prevention experts analyzes medical research and literature and provides regular advice on measures to maintain the health of Americans. A reanalysis of new and old studies prompted the latest advice, Wong said.

Aspirin is best known as an analgesic, but it is also an anticoagulant that can reduce the chance of blood clots. However, aspirin carries risks even at low doses. It is primarily gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers, both of which can be life-threatening.

Dr. Lauren Brock, a medical researcher at the Feinstein Institutes of Medicine in Manhasset, New York, said that so many adults are taking aspirin even though they have never had a heart attack or stroke. , Said that guidance is important.

Block, who did not participate in the Task Force, recently switched one of his patients from aspirin to a cholesterol-lowering statin because of potential harm.

A patient, 70-year-old Richard Schrafel, suffers from high blood pressure and knows about his risk of heart attack. Schrafel, president of the paperboard distribution business, said that aspirin had never had a negative effect, but he takes the new guidance seriously.

Rita Siefeld, 63, also has high blood pressure and has been taking aspirin every day for about 10 years until her doctor told her to stop two years ago.

“He said they changed their minds about it,” recalled an elementary school teacher who retired from Milwaukee. She said she understands that science is evolving.

Wong admitted that backtracking could cause some patients to be dissatisfied and wondered why scientists couldn’t decide.

“That’s a fair question,” he said. “The really important thing to know is that the evidence changes over time.”