ASPIRIN

12 Things You Should Know About Aspirin

We're certainly familiar with our aspirin: About 60 percent of people ages 65 and older pop aspirin at least once a week. But this cheap, over-the-counter pill is not benign, and regular use should be discussed with a doctor. And beware marketing claims. Bayer, the third biggest pharmaceutical company in the world well known for its original brand of Aspirin, was sent warning letters by the Food and Drug Administration today for touting two products.

Though it has many benefits, aspirin has limitations too. A roundup of recent research suggests taking aspirin regularly may do the following. Aspirin is more nuanced than most of us might think—for better or for worse.


Positive Effects:
1.Aspirin reduces the risk of pre-eclampsia during pregnancy. Pregnant women who took aspirin were 10 percent less likely to develop the disorder that involves high blood pressure and potentially serious complications for mother and fetus.

2.Aspirin reduces the risk of developing colorectal cancers. The benefits, however, were not evident until individuals had amassed a total of five consistent years of regular use. Also, the dose with the biggest benefit—325mg pills more than 14 times each week—is greater than typically recommended.

3.Aspirin reduces a woman's risk of breast cancer. A research review published this month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found a 13 percent relative risk reduction in women who used aspirin regularly compared with those who did not. The findings found an overall reduced risk of 12 percent for regular use of NSAIDs(Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) in general. However, previous researches on breast cancer risk and NSAID use has shown conflicting results.

4.Aspirin offers some protection against Alzheimer's disease, a progressive and degenerative brain disease. Research has been inconclusive, but a review published this year in the journal Neurology found people who used aspirin had a 13 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's.

5.Aspirin helps prevent strokes—unless you also take ibuprofen(A type of NSAID). A small study published this year in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that stroke patients taking daily aspirin to prevent another stroke who also took ibuprofen reaped no antiplatelet benefit. After the patients stopped the ibuprofen, the aspirin became effective. Hence, aspirin's benefits may be diminished by ibuprofen use.

6.Aspirin prevents asthma in middle-aged women. A study published in the journal Thorax this year found that women 45 and older who took 100 mg of aspirin every other day were 10 percent less likely to develop asthma over the next decade than women given a placebo. The study authors note that aspirin could exacerbate symptoms in about 10 percent of people already diagnosed with asthma.

7.Aspirin protects against Parkinson's disease. A 2007 study published in Neurology stated that women who used aspirin regularly (defined as two or more a week for at least a month at any point in their life) may be 40 percent less likely to develop the disease.

Negative Effects:
1.Aspirin throws off test results for prostate cancer. Men who used aspirin regularly had about 10 percent lower levels of the prostate marker prostate-specific antigen. The researchers suggest this may hinder the detection of prostate cancer in regular users.

2.Aspirin provides zero protection against heart attacks in people with diabetes. This month, the British Medical Journal published research that suggests diabetics taking aspirin to prevent a first heart attack were no less likely to experience an attack than those taking a placebo. People with diabetes are at least twice as likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke as the general public.

3.Aspirin offers no protection to some sufferers of heart attack or stroke. A research review published in the British Medical Journal in January found that nearly 30 percent of people with cardiovascular disease who took prescribed aspirin were resistant to its effects. Such "aspirin resistance," the study found, makes such patients four times as likely as those for whom aspirin had an effect to have a heart attack, stroke, or die.

4.Aspirin causes stomach problems. People taking aspirin or another NSAID are at higher risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and stomach ulcers—particularly with long-term use of the drug.

5.Aspirin is less effective in women. This month, a research review published in the journal BMC Medicine found that earlier studies showed a large benefit in men taking aspirin to reduce the rates of fatal heart attack, but women did not reap the same benefit.