The statistics speak for themselves: On average, an American dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds, reports the American Heart Association (AHA). Furthermore, the AHA observed a nearly 29 percent increase in stroke-related deaths between 2012 and 2022. Drugs like aspirin and beta-blockers are two of the most common treatments for heart attack patients—but new research says these medications could actually be increasing your cardiovascular risk.
RELATED: Taking 1 Common Medicine Could Prevent 100,000 Heart Attacks A Year, Research Finds.
Researchers might have found a safer aspirin alternative for heart attack patients.
A new meta-analysis published in the journal The Lancet is challenging the long-held belief that aspirin is the most suitable medication for treating established coronary artery disease. Rather, researchers claim that clopidogrel is a more effective alternative.
Clopidogrel is an oral tablet that works as a platelet inhibitor. “It reduces the chance that a harmful blood clot will form by preventing platelets from clumping together in the blood,” explains Mayo Clinic. It’s sold under the brand name Plavix.
Researchers specifically studied the success rate of clopidogrel in patients who had previously suffered a heart attack or stroke. They found that clopidogrel lowered the risk of a future heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular-caused mortality by about 14 percent. Additionally, they observed no increased risk of major bleeding, which is a known risk of the drug.
“To the best of our knowledge, clopidogrel monotherapy is the only anti-platelet treatment that has consistently demonstrated greater efficacy than aspirin without compromising safety,” wrote the authors.
Their data analysis looked at seven randomized trials involving 28, 982 individuals; 14,507 took clopidogrel and 14,475 used aspirin. Following a five-year observation period, clopidogrel patients were less likely to suffer a major cardiovascular event compared to aspirin patients.
“These findings support the consideration of clopidogrel as the preferred long-term anti-platelet strategy instead of aspirin in patients with established coronary artery disease,” wrote the authors.
RELATED: Doctors Warn This Common Medication May Be Linked to Dementia Risk.
Additional research found that beta-blockers can increase a woman’s odds of a second heart attack.
Is it safe for women to take beta-blockers after suffering a heart attack? Perhaps not, according to a new study published in the European Heart Journal. The study looked at heart attack patients with minor heart damage, some of whom were prescribed beta-blockers for treatment.
“Beta blockers work by blocking beta receptors. This action prevents [the stress hormones] epinephrine and norepinephrine from binding to these receptors and thereby inhibits their action inside cells. This, in turn, reduces stress on the heart, slows the heart rate, and lowers blood pressure,” explains Harvard Health.
The research team discovered that women taking beta-blockers were more likely to suffer a second heart attack and be hospitalized for heart failure, compared to their peers who didn’t use beta-blockers. Moreover, cardiovascular-caused mortality was three times higher in beta-blocker patients.
“These findings will reshape all international clinical guidelines on the use of beta-blockers in men and women and should spark a long-needed, sex-specific approach to treatment for cardiovascular disease,” senior study author Valentin Fuster, PhD, president of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City and general director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Investigation in Madrid, told CNN.
Study author Borja Ibáñez, PhD, called the study “significant,” noting that this clinical trial studied the largest-ever population of women patients taking beta-blockers after a heart attack.
A left ventricular ejection fraction below 40 percent is an indicator for potential heart failure, whereas fraction levels above 50 percent are considered “normal.” As CNN explains, “Ejection fraction is a way of measuring how well the left side of the heart is pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body.” Heart attack patients in the former category are often recommended beta-blockers as the best course of treatment.
Stents and blood thinners can also help curb these odds, though many doctors still use beta-blockers as a fallback.
“Yet at this time, some 80% of patients in the US, Europe and Asia are treated with beta-blockers because medical guidelines still recommend them,” said Ibáñez. “While we often test new drugs, it’s much less common to rigorously question the continued need for older treatments.”
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