I am not a fan of aspirin. It causes serious bleeding problems and there are much safer alternatives. Still, millions of people take aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. It definitely thins your blood and helps prevent these vascular problems. What most of these people do not realize is that they may not get the limited benefits of aspirin if you take another painkiller at the same time.
A study recently found out that you should not take certain drugs of the NSAID class (ibuprofen and indomethacin) with aspirin. The researchers said the NSAIDs neutralize the thinning benefits of aspirin when they are taken at the same time. NSAIDs compete with aspirin for the enzyme pathway called Cox-1. Other drugs of the same class, such as rofecoxib, diclofenac, and acetaminophen, do not block the aspirin activity.
But do not think you can take acetaminophen (Tylenol) with aspirin and avoid side effects. The New England Journal of Medicine showed many years ago that acetaminophen and aspirin increases your risk of chronic kidney failure by two-and-a-half times more than Tylenol alone.
So, if you are on aspirin for any reason, do not mix it with any other NSAID drugs. Doing so could remove any protection the aspirin has for preventing heart attacks — that means it increases your risk for a heart attack. And there may be other nasty side effects — some we may not even know about yet.
But ask yourself this: Why take aspirin at all? Omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish oil, flaxseed oil, and hemp seed oil, have the same heart-protecting effect as aspirin. And they do not cause any bleeding in your gut or interactions with other painkillers. They also can reduce your cholesterol, which aspirin does not do.