When Dana Chester had a heart attack in March, the first three things paramedics did after arriving were put him onto a stretcher, get him into the ambulance — and then give him four chewable aspirins.
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“The paramedic who was talking to me was saying, ‘You’re having a heart attack. I want you to chew these up, grind ‘em up, then swallow them all at once. They are going to get a little more blood flowing to your heart,’” Chester, from Longwood, Fla., told LifeZette.
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Thanks to the fast-acting paramedic, Chester — a 53-year-old traffic engineer — suffered no damage to his heart muscles. “My cardiologist told me I was very fortunate to be treated so quickly,” he told LifeZette.
The incredible power of aspirin to reduce heart damage at the time of an attack, and to significantly reduce the chances of a heart attack or stroke if taken regularly, wasn’t even the reason aspirin first become a universal household medicine. When originally manufactured by the Bayer company, its job was to reduce fever (which it did very well during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918).
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Now aspirin is being rediscovered for its power to prevent another scourge — cancer — which it does apparently even better than preventing heart disease. Last year British researchers looked at 200 studies about patients who had taken aspirin daily for years. While it cut the risk of heart attack by 18 percent, it cut the risk of stomach and bowel cancers by 35 percent, and of esophageal cancer by 50 percent.
Now aspirin is being rediscovered for its power to prevent another scourge—cancer—which it does apparently even better than preventing heart disease
“There is some good data on aspirin with (different) cancers, and it makes sense,” says Dr. Sarah Swidan, an associate professor at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. “The crux of all diseases today is inflammation, including cancer, and aspirin is an anti-inflammatory.” Aspirin also thins the blood and prevents blood clots, which is why it works for heart attacks. But because of its anti-inflammatory properties, aspirin may also work to prevent the risk not just of cancer, but of Alzheimer’s disease, adult diabetes, and even enlarged prostates in men.
Dr. Swidan agrees with most doctors that a daily dose of between 80 and 160 milligrams is the right amount for a typical adult— though for a small percentage of patients (less than one in 20), the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding outweighs the benefits.
“It can sometimes irritate the GI track, so we have to be careful,” Dr. Swidan told LifeZette. “It can make your gut leaky.” There is also another 5 to 7 percent of the population genetically unresponsive to aspirin. “But for the other 90 percent, it’s fine.”
As to its cancer-fighting powers, some skeptics point out that the research reviewed last year at London’s Queen Mary University was taken from studies where patients were being investigated for daily aspirin use for illnesses other than cancer.
Now any questions regarding aspirin and cancer are about to be put to rest. Cancer Research UK announced on Oct. 22 that it would launch a multi-year study of 11,000 people who have had bowel, breast, esophagus, prostate, or stomach cancer, to see if taking doses of 110 or 300 milligrams of aspirin daily can prevent the return of the disease.
“This trial aims to answer this question once and for all,” said Prof. Ruth Langley, chief investigator for the research experiment. “If we find that aspirin does stop these cancers from returning, it could change future treatment, providing a cheap and simple way to help stop cancer coming back, and helping more people survive.” Cost is a huge factor in using aspirin as a kind of panacea: Bayer’s low-dose aspirin costs about four cents a pill; buying generic low-dose aspirin in quantity can drop the price to one cent per pill.
Still, there are caveats. One is that it takes about three years of daily doses for the health benefits to show up, though that gets better the longer you take it. There is also the possibility that aspirin might conflict with other drugs — one reason Dr. Swidan, who is also the CEO of Pharmacy Solutions in Ann Arbor, Mich., recommends that you check with your doctor and pharmacist to make sure there are no potential problems, respectively, with your medical history or other prescriptions.
Check with your doctor and then take a small 81 mg dose daily; research shows this is as effective as a dose four times as large, and less likely to irritate. Then carry around three or four chewable aspirins that you can grind up and swallow if you feel intense chest pains.
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