THE benefits of taking 75 mg of aspirin daily for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes have been proved as has the drug's effectiveness with headaches. But aspirin also carries a risk of upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding in some people.
Based on the theory that coating aspirin or mixing with a buffering agent will reduce the risk of bleeding, some brands of aspirin tablets are coated with cellulose, silicon or some other enteric coating or are mixed with buffering agents such as calcium carbonate (chalk). But according to researchers at Boston University School of Medicine, these coated and buffered aspirins are no less likely to cause bleeding. Plain, enteric and buffered aspirin all increase the risk of bleeding in the upper gut three fold. Writing in the Lancet, the authors advised that when buying aspirin, the cheapest type will do.