BARE ASPIRIN FOR YOUR HEART

An aspirin a day keeps the ambulance at bay? Only if you swallow the right kind. Coated aspirin may not be as effective as plain aspirin at preventing coronary heart disease, according to a new study published in the journal Stroke. Researchers gave 71 healthy people different forms of aspirin to take for 2 weeks at a time, then tested their blood for thromboxane, a substance that contributes to blood clots. Levels were 87 percent lower among those taking plain aspirin than in those swallowing coated pills. “Doctors normally prescribe coated aspirin to protect the stomach lining,” says lead study author Dermot Cox, Ph.D., “but the coating may impede absorption.” Consider swallowing a 75- milligram uncoated pill. “It will provide all the benefits with the lowest chance of side effects,” he says.