Who benefits from regular aspirin?

The adage of "an aspirin a day keeps the doctor away" fell by the wayside last month. New guidelines announced by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association say the medication is no longer recommended as a preventive measure among older adults who are healthy and have no known risk of heart disease. In fact, aspirin for this population of healthy people appears to raise the chances of internal bleeding and early death.

The confusion stems from the fact that some heart patients have been prescribed aspirin by their physician. Those patients should not stop taking aspirin without consulting their doctor, said Larry Dean, a UW Medicine interventional cardiologist. Dean discusses the new guidance and how patients should interpret it.

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