1. Who needs these two drugs for treatment? For those who are definitely diagnosed as atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, coronary stent surgery, coronary artery bypass surgery, cerebral infarction caused by atherosclerosis, atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease, etc. (e.g. arteries of lower limbs). For these patients, there is no doubt that they need to take aspirin and statins for a long time as long as there are no obvious side effects and complications.
2. Why can't we stop? Atherosclerosis is a chronic systemic disease. No matter how you treat it, it will not be completely eliminated. It can only be controlled, which means that atherosclerosis is accompanied by life. Of course, it does not rule out that a very small number of people have local atherosclerosis reversal, so they need to take anti-atherosclerosis drugs and antithrombotic drugs for a long time.
2. Aspirin is used for prevention. Who should take it? Who can't eat?
1, representing age; 70-year-old people: For people of this age, aspirin is generally not recommended for the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (primary prevention), because the research thinks that it has great disadvantages, even if they have some risk factors, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking and so on. In fact, these people should not start taking aspirin.
2. People aged 40-70: For people of this age who have not suffered from the above diseases, if they are assessed as high-risk people of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease by professional doctors and complicated with many high-risk factors, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, smoking, obesity, family history of early-onset cardiovascular disease, non-obstructive coronary artery stenosis, etc., it is necessary to start primary prevention with aspirin.
3. Regular reassessment: For those patients aged 40-70 who have started using aspirin for primary prevention, regular reassessment is needed. If some risk factors have been well controlled, such as blood pressure, blood lipid and blood sugar, smoking cessation and weight loss, then whether to continue taking aspirin at this time needs to be reassessed, or it may be stopped.
4, people with high risk of bleeding can not eat: one of the most important side effects of aspirin is to cause bleeding, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, cerebral hemorrhage and so on. If doctors assess that high-risk groups are not allowed to use aspirin.
Third, most people need to use statins for a long time after taking them.
1. Lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol: As we all know, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is the chief culprit leading to atherosclerosis, so statins are needed to lower cholesterol for diagnosed atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases, high-risk groups and simple hypercholesterolemia. Because cholesterol is mostly self-synthesized, people with high LDL cholesterol have relatively little effect on lowering cholesterol through healthy lifestyle, mainly relying on long-term drug control, unless they have to stop taking statins because of serious side effects.
2. Different situations have different requirements for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol: according to different situations, the control requirements for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol are divided into three levels:
(1) Patients with coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction and other diseases have the most stringent requirements and should be controlled below 1.8mmol/l;
(2) The high-risk and middle-risk groups should be relaxed and controlled below 2.6mmol/l;
(3) The low-risk population should be controlled below 3.4 mmol/L. ..
To sum up, drugs are used to treat and prevent diseases, and aspirin and statins are important drugs to prevent and treat cardiovascular diseases. Don't start the treatment of these drugs casually. Of course, patients who really need these drugs can't stop taking them at will, which depends on the careful evaluation of professional doctors to make a decision.