Red Flags Raised Over Low Dose Aspirin Use

Conventional physicians routinely recommend patients take regular low dose aspirin for its alleged cardiovascular benefits. However, a recent series of published studies have focused on a number of serious dangers to this therapy.

In the journal “Opthamology”, Dutch researchers found that seniors who regularly took low dose aspirin had double the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration than those who took no aspirin. The frequency amounted to one in twenty-five aspirin users.

According to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the use of low-dose aspirin increases the risk for GI bleeding. This has been a well-documented adverse reaction to aspirin use and this study confirmed that the effect where the daily intake was as low as 75 mg.

What’s the latest about the heart health benefits of aspirin? Researchers studied 3,350 men and women at high risk of heart disease. One group was given 100 mg of aspirin per day, and the rest were given a placebo.

Over an average of more than eight years, there was no difference in heart attacks (fatal and non-fatal), stroke or even revascularization surgery in the two groups. There was also no difference in angina or a form of leg pain linked to peripheral artery disease called claudication.

In short, the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2010) found no benefits from aspirin whatsoever.
Other recently published studies cite aspirin’s association with birth defects and hearing loss.