Aspirin is a medicine that has been used for many years as a painkiller. However, it has another action to lower the risk of forming a blood clot in the arteries of the heart (coronary arteries) or brain. This lowers the risk of having a heart attack (myocardial infarction) or stroke.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://patient.info/heart-health/aspirin-and-other-antiplatelet-medicines