Daily dose of aspirin may do more harm than good: study
Millions of people who take a daily dose of aspirin in the hope of preventing a heart attack or stroke risk doing themselves more harm than good, British researchers have warned.
Aspirin has previously been hailed as a “wonder drug” and has come to be regarded as a “just in case” self-medicated measure for millions of healthy patients.
Experts had called for everyone over the age of 45 to consider taking a daily dose of aspirin because it could reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke and prevent some cancers.
Researchers yesterday called for guidelines to be revised after they found the risk of internal bleeding outweighed potential benefits.
The study of 100,000 healthy people who have taken aspirin, the largest of its kind, found that the drug reduced the risk of heart attacks by about 10 per cent. The risk of “non-trivial” bleeding rose by a third.
The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggest that, while one heart attack or stroke was averted for every 120 people treated with aspirin over a six-year period, one in 73 people suffered potentially significant bleeding.
The researchers at St George’s, University of London, recommended that people who have suffered a heart attack or stroke and are therefore at a high risk of another should still be routinely prescribed aspirin.
However, they raised concerns about the millions of otherwise healthy people taking aspirin in an attempt to prevent their first heart attack or stroke.
The study also found that the risk of dying from cancer was not affected, despite recent studies showing that the drug could prevent bowel cancers.
It has previously been suggested that aspirin could be included in a future “polypill” that everyone over the age of 50 could take to prevent heart problems.
Professor Kausik Ray, the lead author, said: “The beneficial effect of aspirin on preventing future cardiovascular disease events in people with established heart attacks or strokes is indisputable. We urge people with these conditions not to discontinue their medication unless advised to do so by their physicians for valid reasons.
“However, the benefits of aspirin in those individuals not known to have these conditions are far more modest than previously believed and, in fact, aspirin treatment may potentially result in considerable harm due to bleeding.”
A spokesman for the Aspirin Foundation said: “We have had no opportunity to review this new publication in scientific detail. Our first response is that it is at odds with so much existing medical opinion.”
