Does coating impact aspirin?

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Do you take an aspirin every day for your heart? A new report might make you double check what kind of aspirin you are using.

Many people take coated aspirin because it seems to produce fewer stomach problems. But the question is: does the coating reduce the benefit of the medicine?

For decades, aspirin was the worlds most widely used pain-killer. Then, about 25 years ago, we discovered that it also could prevent heart attacks by making blood less likely to form clots. Almost immediately, millions more people began taking aspirin, encouraged by their doctors. You didn't even need a whole aspirin to get the benefits - the children's dosage was enough.

But many people have stomach problems with aspirin. So coatings were developed to prevent that. A study the University of Pennsylvania looked at different types of aspirin and concluded that "delayed and reduced drug absorption was common after ingestion of enteric coated aspirin."

Does that mean people will have to risk an ulcer to take the medicine? Well, there were some strange aspects to this study. They didn't really measure cardiovascular events, like heart attacks and strokes. They tested only healthy volunteers whose average age was 29 - clearly not typical of people who take aspirin for cardioprotection. And the dosage they used was the higher, adult dose, not the low dose that most people take.

If you take aspirin for fever or pain, the enteric coating may slow down the relief. If you take it for cardioprotection, there's no real evidence that the coating matters. In fact, almost all low-dose aspirin is coated, except for the chewable ones intended for children.