CNN Medical Expert Baffled by Trump’s ‘Unorthodox’ Aspirin Regimen: ‘It Makes No Sense’

CNN Medical Analyst Jonathan Reiner expressed puzzlement at President Donald Trump’s habit of taking aspirin to supposedly make his blood thinner.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported on Trump’s health, which has recently garnered attention because of the bruises on the president’s hands, as well as his occasional nodding off during public meetings. The president blamed the bruising on his aspirin regimen.

“The large dose of aspirin he chooses to take daily has caused him to bruise easily, he said, and he has been encouraged by his doctors to take a lower dose,” the Journal reported. “But Trump has declined to switch because he has been taking it for 25 years.”

“I’m a little superstitious,” the president told the publication.

Trump’s doctor said the president takes 325 milligrams of aspirin each day.

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”

Hours later on CNN, Reiner, a cardiologist, said no, that does not make sense.

That makes no sense. That actually makes nonsense. So first of all, when we use any kind of anticoagulant, medications to prevent clotting, those don’t thin the blood. It’s not like changing something from gumbo to chicken soup. It doesn’t make it doesn’t make it thinner. It makes you less likely to clot.

And it used to be that we would treat a lot of people with aspirin therapy to prevent heart attacks. But we’ve learned in recent years that, particularly for people over the age of 70, not only is there no benefit in terms of just primary prevention trying to prevent a cardiac event by giving them aspirin, that there can be hazard. And the hazard can be bleeding, significant bleeding.

So here’s the interesting thing about this. The president apparently is taking 325mg of aspirin per day, which is essentially one adult-sized aspirin tablet. But the dosage that we use for patients, even with documented coronary artery disease, is a quarter of that. It’s 81 milligrams per day. So why is the president taking an unorthodox dose of aspirin?

Reiner went on to question why Trump would not heed the advice of doctors to use a lower dose of aspirin.

“It makes no sense to me,” Reiner concluded.

Watch above via CNN.