A single pill of baby aspirin is four times less than a dosage of adult aspirin, but studies show this difference is linked to heart health. Baby aspirin may be the best aspirin for heart and stomach health. It's an effective drug for the prevention of clots, but the downside of aspirin therapy is an increased tendency for bleeding.

Cardiologist Dr. David Bailey says, "The biggest problem with the higher dose aspirin is bleeding, for example gastrointestinal or stomach bleeding, so you reduce the risks dramatically with baby aspirin but you maintain the full benefits by being on the smaller dose."

Doctors tell us people who take the full aspirin tend to bruise more easily. But for patients with stents the full dosage is recommended. "If someone has a newly implanted stent the full aspirin is what we go for, but in those patients baby aspirin will be good for preventing long term heart attacks, strokes for instance," says Dr. Bailey.

Nearly a quarter of a million Americans each year will be hospitalized with bleeding complications from taking the wrong dose of aspirin. In the future studies suggest the biggest challenge physicians face will be to identify a blood-thinning regime for their patients.