Actually, if you call 911 and say heart attack! We are going to ask more questions because at least for my center, we do not classify a complaint as a heart attack, because that is a diagnosis. We go with symptoms. I would rather have someone say "I'm having chest pains" because that cuts out a question I have to ask. If you tell me you're having a heart attack, I'm going to ask you 1) why do you think you're having a heart attack and 2) are you having chest pains.
Also there are some half-truths in this email. The "half life" of most aspirins is about 3 hours. And while aspirin does help prevent heart attacks, you should always check with your doctor before taking aspirin for heart attack prevention because it does interact with quite a few prescription drugs. The most alarming "fact" is that aspirin lasts a long time in a medicine cabinet. While it does have a long shelf life, it never smells like vinegar when bad and if the expiration date on the side has passed, so has its potency. The shelf life of aspirin, is at most 3 years.
As for lying down. We tell patients to rest in whatever position is most comfortable, there is no problem with lying down.
Most of the information that I've stated can be confirmed on snopes.com, which incidently I always check when I get one of these bogus emails. Although, most of the stuff I typed up there is from my own experience and EMD classes :)
no subject
Also there are some half-truths in this email. The "half life" of most aspirins is about 3 hours. And while aspirin does help prevent heart attacks, you should always check with your doctor before taking aspirin for heart attack prevention because it does interact with quite a few prescription drugs. The most alarming "fact" is that aspirin lasts a long time in a medicine cabinet. While it does have a long shelf life, it never smells like vinegar when bad and if the expiration date on the side has passed, so has its potency. The shelf life of aspirin, is at most 3 years.
As for lying down. We tell patients to rest in whatever position is most comfortable, there is no problem with lying down.
Most of the information that I've stated can be confirmed on snopes.com, which incidently I always check when I get one of these bogus emails. Although, most of the stuff I typed up there is from my own experience and EMD classes :)
Oh and the snopes link for this load of bs is http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/aspirin.asp