Stopping Aspirin Intake Raises Risks of Heart Attack

Doctors commonly prescribe daily low-dose aspirin after a heart attack to reduce the risk of having a second cardiovascular event. (Reuters)
Doctors commonly prescribe daily low-dose aspirin after a heart attack to reduce the risk of having a second cardiovascular event. (Reuters)
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Stopping Aspirin Intake Raises Risks of Heart Attack

Doctors commonly prescribe daily low-dose aspirin after a heart attack to reduce the risk of having a second cardiovascular event. (Reuters)
Doctors commonly prescribe daily low-dose aspirin after a heart attack to reduce the risk of having a second cardiovascular event. (Reuters)

Doctors commonly prescribe daily low-dose aspirin after a heart attack to reduce the risk of having a second cardiovascular event.

About one in six patients however stop taking their aspirin within three years, a Swedish study found. It warned against stopping the low dose of aspirin, because it raises the risk of heart attack or stroke by nearly 40 percent.

Lead author of the study Dr. Johan Sundstrom told Reuters Health that low-dose aspirin makes the platelets in the blood less likely to form clots. This is especially useful in the coronary or carotid arteries, where blood clots may lead to myocardial infarctions and strokes.

Sundstrom, an epidemiologist at Uppsala University added that millions of patients worldwide take aspirin on a daily basis and might consider stopping at some time during their life.

“We performed this study to help physicians and patients to make an informed decision whether or not to stop aspirin use,” he explained.

To see if risk rises after a patient stops aspirin therapy, Sundstrom’s team used nationwide medical and death registries to identify patients over age 40 taking low-dose aspirin. In Sweden, low-dose aspirin is available only by prescription, so the researchers were also able to see who continued filling their prescriptions between 2005 and 2009.

The researchers analyzed records for 601,527 patients, who were cancer-free and had taken at least 80 percent of their prescribed aspirin doses during the first year of treatment. After excluding a small proportion of patients whose medical records showed a reason for stopping aspirin, such as surgery or a case of severe bleeding, they found that about 15 percent of the full group had stopped taking their aspirin after about three years.

At the end of the study period, there were a total of 62,690 cardiovascular events, defined as hospitalization for a heart attack or stroke, or cardiovascular death.

The study lead author said patients who discontinued aspirin had a 37 percent higher rate of cardiovascular events than those who continued. That translates to one extra cardiovascular event each year among every 74 patients who stopped taking aspirin.

The risk increased shortly after discontinuation, and did not appear to diminish over time, he added.

“Adherence to low-dose aspirin treatment in the absence of major surgery or bleeding is likely an important treatment goal,” stressed Sundstrom.



Japan Births in 2024 Fell Below 700,000 for First Time 

People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)
People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)
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Japan Births in 2024 Fell Below 700,000 for First Time 

People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)
People walk along a pedestrian crossing at a shopping street Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP)

The number of births in Japan last year fell below 700,000 for the first time on record, government data showed Wednesday.

The fast-ageing nation welcomed 686,061 newborns in 2024 -- 41,227 fewer than in 2023, the data showed. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1899.

Japan has the world's second-oldest population after tiny Monaco, according to the World Bank.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a "quiet emergency", pledging family-friendly measures like more flexible working hours to try and reverse the trend.

Wednesday's health ministry data showed that Japan's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman is expected to have -- also fell to a record low of 1.15.

The ministry said Japan saw 1.6 million deaths in 2024, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.

Ishiba has called for the revitalization of rural regions, where shrinking elderly villages are becoming increasingly isolated.

In more than 20,000 communities in Japan, the majority of residents are aged 65 and above, according to the internal affairs ministry.

The country of 123 million people is also facing increasingly severe worker shortages as its population ages, not helped by relatively strict immigration rules.

In neighboring South Korea, the fertility rate in 2024 was even lower than Japan's, at 0.75 -- remaining one of the world's lowest but marking a small rise from the previous year on the back of a rise in marriages.