The common knowledge is that for older people, taking a small dose (81mG/day) of Aspirin will greatly reduce the chance of your having either a full-on stroke or a Transient Ischemic Attack.
This information is very near and dear to my heart as I had a TIA a year ago last February, 2007.
Found this little gem while reading the intarwebs -- from Science Daily:
Ibuprofen Destroys Aspirin's Positive Effect On Stroke Risk, Study Shows
Stroke patients who use ibuprofen for arthritis pain or other conditions while taking aspirin to reduce the risk of a second stroke undermine aspirin's ability to act as an anti-platelet agent, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown.
In a cohort of patients seen by physicians at two offices of the Dent Neurologic Institute, 28 patients were identified as taking both aspirin and ibuprofen (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID) daily and all were found to have no anti-platelet effect from their daily aspirin.
Thirteen of these patients were being seen because they had a second stroke/TIA while taking aspirin and a NSAID, and were platelet non-responsive to aspirin (aspirin resistant) at the time of that stroke.
The researchers found that when 18 of the 28 patients returned for a second neurological visit after discontinuing NSAID use and were tested again, all had regained their aspirin sensitivity and its ability to prevent blood platelets from aggregating and blocking arteries.
And it seems to not be new knowledge -- unfortunately, it seems to have been swept under the covers:
"This interaction between aspirin and ibuprofen or prescription NSAID's is one of the best-known, but well-kept secrets in stroke medicine," said Francis M. Gengo, Pharm.D., lead researcher on the study.
"It's unfortunate that clinicians and patients often are unaware of this interaction. Whatever number of patients who have had strokes because of the interaction between aspirin and NSAIDs, those strokes were preventable."
Well crap -- it would have been good to know about this as I have a problem with my hip that is causing some pain and I have been using Ibuprofen to control it.
Time to go back to the Tramadol. It has been such a fun year or two...
