Originally published July 17 2005
Aspirin-a-day advice under fire from doctors
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A Welsh website discusses a recent debate within the pages of the British Medical Journal over whether patients over 50 should take an aspirin a day, as has been recommended for years.
LEADING experts have clashed over the question of whether everyone over 50 should take a daily aspirin supplement to protect them against heart attack and strokes.
One of the world's foremost aspirin experts, Professor Peter Elwood, who is based at Cardiff's Llandough Hospital, believes the common headache tablet could also help to protect people against Alzheimer's disease and some cancers.
Research has already shown that the risk of heart attack or stroke can be reduced by up to 30% by taking aspirin because the drug helps to prevent blood clots.
As a general rule, a daily dose of aspirin is only given to people whose five-year risk of a heart attack or stroke, is 3% or more.
By the age of 50, 80% of men and 50% of women reach this level of risk and Prof Elwood, and colleagues at Cardiff University, suggest that between 90% to 95% of the population could take low-dose aspirin without problems.
There is also emerging evidence which suggests that taking a regular, but low, dose of aspirin may reduce cancer and dementia.
"Although we judge that aspirin should be taken from around 50 years, we insist that the general public should be well informed and the final decision should lie with each person."
But Dr Baigent said it would be "unwise" to adopt such a policy, whatever age threshold is chosen, until the medical world is certain that older patients will derive net benefit from it.
Dr Baigent said, "In my view, we should not contemplate an age threshold approach to primary prevention with aspirin until we have much better evidence of its benefits in older people.
"A recommendation that aspirin be used for primary prevention of vascular disease in unselected people over a certain age could result in net harm, and we must have very good evidence to the contrary before instituting such a policy."
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