Aspirin

Aspirin

It's Available, It's Versatile--
And It Works

Every week you see the same screaming headlines in those supermarket tabloids: "Amazing New Pill Restores Youth and Vitality!" "Wonder Drug Whips Cancer!" "Powerful Tablet Prevents Heart Attacks!"

Unfortunately, erasing the signs of aging isn't as easy as popping a pill. No matter what the papers say, there's no substitute for a healthy diet, moderate exercise and stress-free, smoke-free living.

But if you're looking for a real-life drug that might help you stay young by working to prevent heart attacks, cancer, gallstones, migraine headaches and other ailments, you may already have it in your medicine cabinet.

It's aspirin, the world's most unassuming super-tablet.

The Heart of the Matter

Doctors have been backing aspirin for nearly 2,000 years. Hippocrates himself told his Greek friends to chew on willow bark whenever they had pain or fever. Turns out that the bark contained salicylic acid, an unrefined form of aspirin.

You probably already know that aspirin can relieve minor pain, common headaches, arthritis symptoms and low-grade fevers. It works by inhibiting the body's production of prostaglandins, chemicals that help deliver pain messages from the site of an injury to the brain.

But there's an important side effect, too. Prostaglandins aid in blood clotting, so aspirin use reduces clotting. And while that can be a problem in some instances, evidence is growing that this may help prevent heart attacks by reducing clots in the coronary arteries that feed the heart.

A Harvard Nurses' Health Study that tracked more than 121,000 nurses for 15 years, found that women who took one to six aspirin tablets per week cut their risk of heart attack by 30 percent.

Aspirin isn't for everyone, says the co-principal investigator of the study's cardiovascular component, JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of women's health at Brigham and Women's Hospital, both in Boston. "Aspirin is likely to benefit postmenopausal women at high risk of cardiovascular disease." But for the rest of us, she says, the picture is not so clear.

"Under any circumstances, aspirin therapy should be undertaken only under a physician's supervision," says Dr. Manson.

Aspirin's anti-aging powers may reach even farther than your heart. Aspirin could help you ward off some forms of stroke by reducing blood clots. Experts warn, however, that aspirin therapy could put you at slightly higher risk for hemorrhagic strokes, which are caused by ruptured blood vessels. See your doctor before you start taking aspirin for stroke prevention. The landmark Physicians' Health Study showed that men who took aspirin every other day had a significantly reduced need for surgery to repair other blocked blood vessels in the body.

And aspirin might boost your chances of avoiding colon cancer. In one study of more than 600,000 people, those who took aspirin 16 or more times a month had a 50 percent lower risk of developing such cancer. Clark W. Heath, Jr., M.D., vice president for epidemiology and statistics at the American Cancer Society, says that's because aspirin appears to slow down the development of adenomas--polyps that are probably precursors to colon cancer.

On the headache front: The Physicians' Health Study also found that those who took aspirin every other day developed 20 percent fewer migraine headaches. Researchers are now trying to see if the same results hold true for women, according to Seymour Diamond, M.D., director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago and executive director of the National Headache Foundation. He also points out, however, that aspirin does little to stop migraines that are already under way.

People at risk of developing gallstones may benefit from aspirin, too. A British study of 75 patients predisposed to stone formation found that the 12 regular aspirin users in the group got no stones, while 20 of the 63 nonusers did.

Helpful--But Not Harmless

So where's the catch? Well, aspirin is a drug, and like most drugs, it has side effects that may outweigh its benefits for some women.

For starters, aspirin can irritate the lining of your stomach. If that happens, you may feel a burning sensation, though usually the damage is not serious. In rare cases, aspirin use can trigger intense abdominal pain, ulcers or even gastrointestinal bleeding.

There's also a possibility that aspirin could increase your risk of stroke triggered by bleeding into the brain, says Julie Buring, Sc.D., principal investigator of the Women's Health Study and associate professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School. On the other hand, aspirin may decrease the risk of the most common form of stroke, which is caused not by bleeding but by blood clots in the head.

Aspirin also can cause tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. The condition is usually temporary, and aspirin will cause no permanent damage to your ears. If aspirin makes your ears ring, doctors suggest trying a product containing acetaminophen.

Tablet Tips

If you think aspirin may help boost your chances of avoiding heart disease or other problems, just remember:

Don't play doctor. Aspirin therapy carries risks. Talk to your physician about whether or not it's right for you. "You should consult your doctor before taking aspirin for a sustained period of time," says James E. Muller, M.D., co-director of the Institute for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at New
England Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

Easy dose it. If a little aspirin works wonders, why not take a lot? Simple: Test results show that taking megadoses of aspirin does no more good than taking smaller doses.

Most research has focused on those who take a 325-milligram tablet--the size of a regular-strength aspirin--every other day. The landmark Physicians' Health Study found that an aspirin every other day helped cut heart attack risk.

A Dutch study showed that smaller doses--perhaps one-tenth the size of a regular tablet--may provide essentially the same results. "This study adds more weight to the view that doses of aspirin currently used for prevention may be higher than need be," says Dr. Muller.

Your doctor should be able to set a proper dosage for you, Dr. Muller says. He also warns not to cut down on your dosage if a doctor has already prescribed aspirin.

Avoid a gut reaction. Try to take aspirin with a meal because you'll be less likely to feel stomach pain or nausea. If you're between meals, try swallowing aspirin with a full eight-ounce glass of water instead.

Bypass your belly. Some regular-dose and low-dose aspirins have special coatings that let them pass through your stomach and digest in your small intestine instead, which is a little easier on your digestive system. Look for brands that are buffered or "enteric-coated."

Focus on healthy living. No matter how powerful aspirin proves to be, it won't solve all your problems. It may help prevent a heart attack, but so do a healthy diet and regular workouts.

"You should do everything you can to reduce the risk factors such as high cholesterol, smoking, overweight and lack of exercise," says Alexander Leaf, M.D., founder of the Cardiovascular Health Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.