Low-Dose Aspirin Aids in Stroke Survival.

Each year, about 700,000 Americans experience a new or recurrent stroke. Although survival rates of stroke victims have increased in recent years, stroke is the leading cause of long-term adult disability and remains the third-leading cause of death in the United States. People can combat these statistics by speaking with their doctors about appropriate lifestyle measures, such as daily low-dose aspirin therapy, to help prevent the occurrence of a cardiac event.

While results from the Antiplatelet Trialists' Collaboration indicated that 14 percent of people who survive a first stroke would have another within one year, findings from the same study also suggested that long-term aspirin therapy, such as with St. Joseph 81 milligram aspirin, greatly reduces recurrent strokes by 25 percent. In the Second International Study of Infarct Survival involving more than 17,000 men and women, findings suggested that low-dose aspirin specifically reduced patients' risk of experiencing a non-fatal stroke by 46 percent.

"Research continually supports the use of low-dose aspirin in the prevention of stroke without the increased side effect of stomach bleeding associated with higher doses of aspirin, such as 325 milligrams," says Dr. Jayne Middlebrooks, non-invasive cardiologist and director of HealthScreen America in Atlanta, Ga. "An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away, and this adage is particularly true for adults at an increased risk of a first or recurrent stroke."

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