Can Tylenol Be Taken In Place Of Aspirin?

Posted on Thu, 5 Nov 2015

Question: Can Tylenol be used to replace low dose aspirin as a 'blood thinner' after taking six months of xarelto. I have had ruen y gastric by pass ten years ago and was told not to take nsaids. My hematologist wants me to take baby aspirin but it scares me because of ulcer possibilities to my stomach and surgery areas. The xarelto has resolved the blood clot in my leg, which was caused by riding in the car too long without a break. Not prgenetic predisposed to clots according to tests run by hematologist.

Answered by Dr. Priyank Mody (22 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Take baby aspirin, benefit more than the risk. Regards

Detailed Answer:
Hello, I am Dr Mody and I would be addressing your concern,
No Tylenol cannot be used as an alternative to aspirin as they are different group of drugs and Tylenol has no action of preventing blood clots.
Now I would just like to add some observations.
1) you had a venous thrombus in the leg, so your were offered xarelto which is an anti coagulation and appropriate for the senerio.
2) venous clots are reach in thrombin and arterial clots are rich in platelets. So aspirin (is an anti platelet) molecule has minimal role in preventing venous clot
3) your hematologist in all probability must have given aspirin to be just a little extra sure about the treatment.
4) baby aspirin (50-75mg) is particularly very low dose of aspirin , which per say has negligible action for ulcer formation and you may take it, however take it along with food and do a stool for occult blood investigation every month to make sure there is no erosion (precursor of ulcer)
All other blood thinner have higher incidence of GIT bleed so not recommended for you.
Regards Dr Priyank Mody

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D