What should patients pay attention to when taking aspirin for a long time?📝📝📝

Aspirin is a classic and commonly used antithrombotic drug. In clinical, its application is very extensive. It can be used to prevent and treat cerebral thrombosis, cardiopulmonary infarction, angina pectoris, ischemic heart disease, etc. It plays an important role in the prevention of primary and secondary cardiovascular disease. Therefore, aspirin needs to be taken by many patients for a long time. The best results for these patients can only be achieved by taking aspirin correctly. The following will tell about the correct way to take aspirin.

When is it better to take aspirin?

Is it better for patients to take aspirin in the morning, noon, or evening? Some experts pointed out that there is controversy about the time of taking aspirin in the current research. Studies have shown that platelet activity increases in the morning. Therefore, from six o'clock to twelve o'clock in the morning is the high incidence time of cardiovascular events, so patients are advised to take aspirin in the morning. However, other studies have suggested that patients take aspirin at night to lower their blood pressure better, so they are advised to take it at night. In fact, the mechanism of action of aspirin is that the peak blood levels of the drug are not reached until several hours after taking the drug. Its antiplatelet effect can also last for several days after repeated administration. Therefore, whether aspirin is taken in the morning or in the evening, its antiplatelet effect persists after repeated doses. Therefore, it is generally more important to recommend that patients take aspirin regularly for a long time.

Different dosage forms of aspirin have different doses.

Different dosage forms of aspirin have different effects when taken before or after meals. If a patient is taking aspirin as a regular tablet, this dosage form causes it to be broken down in the stomach. Therefore, this form of aspirin should be taken after meals to reduce its damage to the gastric mucosa. If a patient is taking aspirin as an enteric-coated tablet, it will only dissolve in alkaline intestinal fluids and not in acidic gastric fluids. Taking this form of aspirin after meals can delay its absorption. Moreover, the alkaline content of food may cause the enteric-coated tablet to dissolve in the stomach and cause damage to the gastric mucosa. Therefore, it recommends that enteric-coated tablets should be taken 30 to 60 minutes before meals.

Patients should avoid missing to take aspirin.

Missed doses occasionally occur in patients taking long-term medication. What are the effects of missing an aspirin? Although the activity of existing platelets can be effectively inhibited by a single low-dose aspirin, the human body generates 10-15% of platelets every day. Therefore, patients need to take regular daily aspirin to keep these new platelets suppressed. If the patient occasionally misses an aspirin, it has little effect on the antithrombotic effect. However, frequent missed doses increase the risk of blood clots. It is recommended to take the medicine at a fixed time each day to avoid missed doses. If the patient misses a dose and is close to the next dose, there is no need to make up the dose and do not double the dose to avoid increasing adverse reactions. If the patient misses a dose and it is long before the next dose, make up the dose immediately.

Do not drink alcohol while taking aspirin.

First, the activity of an alcohol metabolizing enzyme (alcohol dehydrogenase) is inhibited by aspirin. It slows the metabolism of alcohol and causes more alcohol to accumulate in the body. Alcohol intoxication can become more likely. In addition, alcohol also increases the risk of gastric mucosa and liver damage. Therefore, alcohol should be avoided while taking aspirin. If the patient must drink alcohol, the patient should separate the medication time and alcohol consumption to reduce the interaction between the two.

Who is more likely to experience gastrointestinal adverse reactions when taking aspirin?

The patient's medication compliance is often affected by the adverse reactions of the medication. If a patient develops stomach pain after taking aspirin, it is easy for them to stop taking the drug. Digestive tract adverse reactions are more likely to occur in patients with a history of smoking and drinking, taking high-dose aspirin, taking anticoagulants at the same time, age > 65 years, or previous history of gastrointestinal diseases. These patients may need to take stomach-protecting drugs to reduce the occurrence of gastrointestinal adverse reactions.

Patients who develop aspirin resistance should be reassessed and adjusted their medication.

Aspirin resistance refers to the inability of patients to prevent blood clots after taking aspirin. When this occurs, the patient needs to be reassessed and assessed for factors that affect the efficacy of aspirin. Such as blood pressure, blood sugar, blood lipids are not effectively controlled. Does the patient take medication regularly? Are there any interactions between other drugs (such as NSAIDs) and aspirin? If the patient does not have the above factors, consider increasing the aspirin dose or switching to other antiplatelet drugs.