The difference between health care products and drugs is that drugs must have clear indications, which diseases to treat and which patients are suitable for, while health care products can never be advertised as having the function of preventing and treating diseases, which is explicitly prohibited by relevant state agencies. Therefore, if taking aspirin and statins can prolong life, it is definitely not possible. It can only be said that taking aspirin and statins can prevent and treat certain diseases, thus reducing the risk of death and prolonging the life of patients.
Since it is a drug, there must be clear indications and applicable people. For healthy people, don't take aspirin and statins casually. In fact, all drugs have two functions, one is to prevent diseases and the other is to treat diseases.
1. Aspirin can inhibit platelet aggregation and prevent thrombosis, and the direct consequence of thrombosis is to block blood vessels and induce ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Therefore, the indication of aspirin is actually ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Aspirin plays a preventive role in high-risk groups of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, such as patients with three highs; Aspirin has preventive and therapeutic effects on patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction.
2. The effects of statins mainly include two points-lowering blood lipid and stabilizing plaque. Hyperlipidemia is also the chief culprit leading to the occurrence and development of plaque, so statins also have an indirect effect of delaying the growth of plaque. Aiming at the lipid-lowering effect of statins, it is suitable for patients with hyperlipidemia and plays a therapeutic role; Statins have the effects of delaying the growth of plaque and stabilizing plaque, and are suitable for patients with plaque formation to play a therapeutic role.
Of course, statins are also suitable for high-risk groups of ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and patients with a history of ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In these patients, statins are usually taken with aspirin. Statins are the first line of defense to prevent plaque rupture. Aspirin is the second line of defense, that is, to prevent ruptured plaques from gathering and forming thrombus. Because of this, aspirin and statins often appear together and are considered as the cornerstone drugs in the cardiovascular field.
As mentioned above, if you take aspirin alone, the direct benefit is to prevent thrombosis. If statins are taken alone, it can reduce blood lipid and prevent atherosclerotic plaque. If aspirin and statins are taken together, thrombosis, vascular blockage and ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases can be prevented to the greatest extent.
Therefore, people at high risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases need to take aspirin and statins for a long time, which is the primary preventive effect of aspirin and statins; Patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases need to take aspirin and statins for a long time, which is the secondary preventive effect of aspirin and statins.
After talking about the benefits, you can't forget the risks. Every drug has two sides. Life-saving is the value of the drug itself, but if taken improperly, life-saving drugs can also become deadly drugs. The risk of taking aspirin and statins for a long time also includes two aspects: first, the side effects of the drugs themselves; The second is the extra risk brought by not taking good medicine.
1. Side effects of the drug itself
The common side effects of aspirin are gastrointestinal reaction, bleeding risk, allergy and asthma. The common side effects of statins are increased transaminase and creatine kinase, muscle injury and possibly blood sugar. Patients who take aspirin and statins for the first time should seek a doctor's reexamination one month after taking them, mainly to check the possible side effects.
2. Additional risks of drugs
Abuse of drugs will also bring some unnecessary risks. For example, taking statins in excess of the normal dose may lead to liver and kidney damage; Taking aspirin when blood pressure is out of control may induce cerebral hemorrhage; Unauthorized withdrawal of drugs may cause cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction and so on. Therefore, patients taking aspirin and statins must strictly follow the doctor's advice, including dosage, time and course of treatment, and never make a decision without authorization.