Recently the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has conducted research that found more than 1 in 10 Aspirin users use the drug inappropriately, and that this misusage can have a plethora of dangerous side-effects.

Throughout the years it has become fairly common knowledge that the daily usage of low-dose Aspirin can reduce one’s chance of getting a heart attack or a stroke. But what most individuals fail to understand is that this is generally only necessary for individuals who have previously had either one of those conditions.

Individuals who should be taking low-dosage Aspirin daily should also have at least a six percent chance of having a stroke or heart attack in the next 10 years. Those who do not fit in these two categories should not be using the drug daily, experts say.

Dr. Ravi Hira, the leader of the research and cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, stated, “Aspirin is not a medication that comes without risks.”

The drug can lead to both gastrointestinal bleeding and hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain).

To further indicate the severity of using a daily dose of Aspirin, Dr. Valentin Fuster, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, mentioned that when using Aspirin “often, the risk of bleeding is higher than the risk of heart attack or stroke.”

This information is alarming considering the high rates of inappropriate Aspirin use found in the recent study; out of the 69,000 U.S. adults prescribed Aspirin long-term, nearly 12 percent of these individuals should not have been.

Findings show that women and younger patients tend, on average, to misuse Aspirin more frequently. And that considering all of the findings and statistics were dependent on patients being prescribed Aspirin, there can be thousands of individuals that are wrongly taking the medication without any consultation or advising by medical professionals.

Both Dr. Hira and Dr. Fuster expressed that the issue with the daily usage of Aspirin may lie in a lazy public; both Doctors stated that to pop a pill everyday is much easier than to change one’s lifestyle–making it healthier and cleaner.