In the News – Aspirin Linked to Lower Cancer Risk
Snippet from the non-hair-loss health article:
Long-term use of a daily low-dose aspirin dramatically cuts the risk of dying from a wide array of cancers, a new investigation reveals.Specifically, a British research team unearthed evidence that a low-dose aspirin (75 milligrams) taken daily for at least five years brings about a 10 percent to 60 percent drop in fatalities depending on the type of cancer.
The finding stems from a fresh analysis of eight studies involving more than 25,500 patients, which had originally been conducted to examine the protective potential of a low-dose aspirin regimen on cardiovascular disease.
Read the full story — Daily Aspirin Linked to Steep Drop in Cancer Risk
For years, there has been a suggestion that low doses of aspirin daily (75 to 81mg) can reduce the risk of death from a variety of cancers and vascular diseases. With increasing evidence like this, perhaps its time to consider taking one baby aspirin every day (talk to your doctor, of course).
I find this somewhat of an interesting find. Being a second year medical student in the US I have a slightly different way of looking at this than, say, non-medical field workers and physicians who have been taught to rely on medicine to treat disease. Some of my teachers have hinted at a shifting paradigm in medicine from treating a disease to focusing on the factors that cause disease to arise and modifying those prior to, and during the disease. If this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense right now, then just bare with me for a moment (it may save your life!)
So the study has correlated low dose aspirin intake to lower mortality of cancer, gastrointestinal cancer in particular. While I can’t seem to find the journal article I can’t say for sure what the mechanism proposed for aspirin to prolong death by cancer is, I will assume that it is by lowering chronic sub-clinical/clinical inflammation. Around 200 years ago a scientist in London named Sir Percival Pott postulated that chronic inflammation leads to cancer. While this might not be true for every cancer, it certainly is for a substantial number of them. (Obviously, there are many other contributing factors, but the only one that I could see aspirin beeing related to is it’s effect on inflammation) Gastrointestinal cancers are linked very strongly with underlying inflammation. Inflammation is not inherited or out of one’s control. There are an abundance of medical journal articles linking diet to inflammation.
Without going on forever, I’ll try to bring this to a conclusion and an alternative solution (as if you couldn’t already see where I was going with this). For those cancers where inflammation plays a role in leading to it’s onset there are two options: 1. Take a daily low dose of aspirin, which comes along with side-effects, toxicities, drug interactions, ect. or, 2. Learn how to control the self-induced inflammation that is usually caused by a pro-inflammatory diet (this has no negative consequences as far as I know, only overall better health).
While it seems easiest to just take a pill and continue to feed the pharmaceutical industry, it should be in our best interest to be our best health without consequences, health-wise or socially (pharm. industry). If you are interested then look up inflammation related to diet or food. I wish you all the best in your health and hope to never see you in my future office ;)