aspirin effects

An Aspirin a Day? Don’t Dose Yourself, FDA Says

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Taking an aspirin a day may help prevent heart attack or stroke in some people, but it’s not for everyone — and the common drug can have serious side effects that offset the benefits.

That’s the reminder Monday from health officials at the federal Food and Drug Administration, who have finally told giant drugmaker Bayer Corp. not to expect the agency to give the go-ahead for labels listing aspirin as a drug for primary prevention of heart attacks and other problems.

Instead, the recommendation for daily doses of therapeutic aspirin remains the same: It should be used only in people at high risk for heart attack and stroke, and then only under a doctor’s care.

“You should use daily aspirin therapy only after first talking to your health care professional, who can weigh the risks and benefits,” said Dr. Robert Temple, the FDA’s deputy director for clinical science.

Some studies have shown that taking doses ranging from an 81-milligram baby aspirin to a 325-milligram full-strength tablet can be helpful and aspirin therapy is recommended for those who’ve had a heart attack or who are at high risk for one.

But no one should be taking daily aspirin just because they think it’s a good idea, said Dr. Richard Chazal, vice president of the American College of Cardiology.

“There’s been sort of a conception that since aspirin is so good that maybe it would be a good idea if everyone took it,” he said. “But the data don’t really support that.”

Aspirin is a blood thinner, which helps with heart attack and stroke, but also carries risk of dangerous bleeding in the stomach or brain. People need individual assessment of their health condition to determine whether aspirin is right for them.

Bayer asked the FDA in 2003 to allow label changes, citing studies that showed daily low-dose aspirin appeared to cut the risk of cardiac problems and stroke. The agency finally sent the firm an answer on Friday, saying that subsequent studies don’t show a significant benefit of aspirin for primary prevention uses.

But both FDA and Bayer officials acknowledged that there are a number of ongoing, large scale clinical studies under way to test the use of aspirin for primary prevention of heart attack and stroke. Bayer officials said the results of aspirin use in more than 50,000 patients are expected in the next few years.

One caveat: If you’re already taking aspirin under a doctor’s orders, don’t stop without checking. It can be life-threatening to abruptly halt your dose, said Dr. Steven M. Goldberg, a cardiologist at North Shore Cardiology and Internal Medicine in Great Neck, N.Y.

Source: nbc news

The Shocking Truth About Aspirin – It Doesn’t Work!

Aspirin has been around for over half a century. It’s primary and “original” use was for pain relief. But when Tylenol and NSAIDs (such as Advil) took over the pain relief field, the aspirin industry “bigwigs” pulled out the “big guns” and went after: heart disease.

What the heck, they figured. After all, a billion-dollar medicine has to go somewhere. And like most businesses, you have to keep growing and finding new “revenue streams” to increase revenue and profits. The “big killer” of heart disease seemed like a natural avenue to go down. So aspirin decided to acquire “new indications” as a blood-clot fighter and is already widely used to treat and prevent strokes and heart attacks.

It Didn’t Work For Apples
Just about every male I know over the age of 60 (including younger men) and many women (BOTH my parents in fact) are taking “an aspirin a day to keep the doctor away.” Well, it didn’t work for apples and I don’t think it works for aspirin either. But that isn’t stopping its promoters from telling people it will do that and a whole lot more.

Crazy Claims
Take a quick look at some of the other claims the “Aspirin Institute” is making about its product. The “Institute” strongly hints (“studies suggest that…”) that this “miracle drug” cures, decreases, alleviates, or prevents:

  • Breast cancer
  •  Migraine headaches
  •  Hodgkin’s disease Alzheimer’s disease
  •  Prostate cancer
  •  Cancer of the pancreas
  •  Colon cancer Birth defects
  •  Leukemia Immune disorders, including AIDS

And that’s just a partial list, But geez … take a look at the last one – AIDS! Wow, if Aspirin really could do that, it would be a “miracle” drug, right? …

So the “experts” seem to think that at least 95 percent of the population needs aspirin on a daily basis. But the dangers associated with extensive use of aspirin are downright horrifying.

Aspirin Does The Opposite
Researchers have reported that aspirin might, in fact, increase your risk for stroke, heart attack, macular degeneration (blindness), and cataract formation! You didn’t hear anything about these findings because no one reported on them in the popular press. So if you don’t read medical journals in your spare time, you probably missed these REAL bits of news.

Here’s what the researchers have to say:

  •  40% of people who regularly take large doses of aspirin actually demonstrated an INCREASED risk of both stroke and heart attack.
  •  Regular aspirin users have a significantly increased risk of macular degeneration with blindness!
  •  Aspirin use also puts people at a 44% increased risk of cataracts.

Of course, there’s always the widely known increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding that accompanies aspirin too. And these sorts of findings weren’t published in some lowly rag. No, the highly respected prestigious rags, like the British Medical Journal, Lancet, and the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to a similar conclusion: aspirin shows no benefit in the prevention of heart attacks!

Source: self growth