Doctors have known for more than a decade that chewing an aspirin during a heart attack can dramatically lower the risk of death.
But now, Health Canada has given Bayer, the maker of aspirin, the go-ahead to actually market the drug as an emergency treatment.
For over a hundred years, acetylsalicylic acid, more commonly known as aspirin, has been marketed as a pain killer, but now its ability to treat heart attacks in the early stages is also being touted.
Soon, labeling will include the recommendation that if a person suspects they are having a heart attack, they should call 911, then chew and swallow two low-dose tablets.
That’s because heart attacks are caused by blood clots something aspirin has the ability to dissolve.
Even dispatchers at 911 tell adults suffering from chest pains to take aspirin while waiting for an ambulance and when paramedics arrive, they’ll administer aspirin if it hasn’t taken it already.
For more information, go to the Heart And Stroke Foundation website.
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