Study shows Aspirin risks can outweigh benefits

The use of Aspirin as a preventative medicine could in fact be damaging to a healthy body a new study led by the University of Edinburgh has shown.

The research showed that taking Aspirin on a daily basis in order to reduce the risk of heart troubles had potentially dangerous consequences.

Prof Peter Weissberg of the British Heart foundation said: "The findings of this study agree with our current advice that people who do not have symptomatic or diagnosed artery or heart disease should not take Aspirin, because the risks of bleeding may outweigh the benefits."

The trial, titled “Aspirin for Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis”, involved 28,890 men and women between the ages of 50 and 75, who showed no signs of cardiovascular disease.

Edinburgh University published the results of the research in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Aspirin Foundation, which advices on Aspirin use, said that in the case of certain patients a low dose of the drug could be seen to prevent the risk of heart problems.

Prof Weissberg agreed: “We know that patients with symptoms of artery disease... can reduce their risk of further problems by taking a small dose of aspirin each day.”

However the Foundation conceded that such treatment was only applicable to patients who were “considered by their doctor to be at special risk from particular factors such as obesity, lifestyle, stress and a familial history".

The assistant to Professor Gerry Fowkes, Professor of Epidemiology at the university, provided The Journal with documentation of the study.

In the “Comment” section of the report, the findings reveal that when studying the use of Aspirin researchers “did not observe a reduction in major vascular events or in the secondary vascular end point.” These are the diseases that the drug is said to prevent.

Furthermore the paper exposes the fact that, “Although numbers were small, the trial results suggested an increased incidence of major hemorrhage and gastrointestinal ulcer,” confirming that, “in previous primary prevention trials... a collective 50 percent increase was found in major gastrointestinal and other extra-cranial bleeds.”

The results emphasise the notion that use of the medicine as a preventative measure is perhaps not worth the risk.