A new study has revealed that regular users of the painkiller Celebrex, who also use low-dose aspirin to keep the risk of heart attacks and strokes to a minimum, might just be hampering the effectiveness of aspirin as the painkiller interferes with its functioning.

Laboratory studies undertaken by the University of Michigan researchers have discovered that various coxibs, the drug class to which Celebrex belongs, end up hampering with aspirin's ability to fight and prevent blood clots, if the medicine is taken in low-doses.

Celebrex, which is also marketed as celecoxib, is the only coxib that is presently available in the markets.

"There are many people who take low-dose aspirin, perhaps as many as half of men over 50. If they are also prescribed Celebrex for arthritis or other pain, our results suggest that the Celebrex will probably interfere with the aspirin's action", said the study's lead author Dr. William L. Smith.

The study was conducted on animals, and researchers concluded that animals which were on both Celebrex and low-dose aspirin developed more blood clots, compared to those animals which were on aspirin alone.

The study's details have been published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.