Taking aspirin helps prevent blood clots from forming in people with known coronary artery disease, especially when the aspirin is taken within 15 minutes of experiencing a heart attack or chest pains. Current guidelines recommend chewing the aspirin to increase absorption rates. However, there has been little evidence supporting this guideline - until now.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, gave three different types of aspirin to 13 men and 1 woman with a mean age of 31. The same dose - 1,950 milligrams (the equivalent of six regular aspirin tablets) - was administered to all participants. However, one group was asked to swallow the pills whole. A second group was given regular aspirin tablets and told to chew the pills before swallowing. A third group was given chewable aspirin, which they swallowed while they were chewing. The researchers then conducted blood measurements, which clearly demonstrated that the aspirin was absorbed most quickly when administered in chewable form and swallowed.

This "seemingly quite simple finding" could lead to improvements in the care of heart attack patients, says Sean Nordt, M.D., of UC San Diego. "This supports the recommendation to use chewable aspirin formulation in the treatment of acute coronary syndrome," he says. However, if the chewable form of aspirin is not available, any form of aspirin should still be taken, caution the researchers. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Medicine in New Orleans.

News Release: Chewable aspirin is best for the heart  www.webmd.com May 15, 2009