[Alert] URGENT Aspirin Warning for Seniors
By now you know my stance on aspirin… take it ONLY if you’re having a heart attack.
But whatever you do… do NOT take it for primary prevention. The benefits simply do not outweigh the risks.
One of the major ones is that it can increase your risk of deadly bleeding… especially in seniors.
Now, the aspirin trial latest trial has evaluated aspirin use in people over 70 years old.
And what they found this time will have you swearing off aspirin for GOOD.
The ASPREE trial included people over 70 who didn’t have heart disease.
The results showed that taking 100 mg of aspirin daily had NO EFFECTS on disability-free survival.
The researchers chose to evaluate this effect because if you don’t have heart disease, helping you live longer would be the only reason to prescribe a preventive drug.
Finally, some researchers are coming around to my way of thinking!
Ironically, though, these individuals (who experienced NO benefit) were also at the greatest risk of dangerous bleeding.
Now, people who had the highest risk of heart disease did have significantly lower rates of cardiovascular events. But here’s the interesting part…
Despite these supposed benefits, there was still ZERO impact on disability-free survival.
According to Professor Christopher Reid, on behalf of the ASPREE investigators, said, “Based on the results of the main ASPREE trial, daily low-dose aspirin cannot be recommended in healthy people over 70—even in those at greatest CVD risk.”
He goes on to say that they need better methods to find out just who might benefit from preventive therapy.
Sounds like they’re grasping at straws to me!
How many studies and endpoints and subgroups do they need to test to finally admit that aspirin shouldn’t be used for primary prevention?
You don’t need to wait for those trials—or their findings.
Keep aspirin on hand in case you ever find yourself having a heart attack. Other than that, you can feel confident about telling your doc “no thanks.”
In fact, if you’re already taking it for prevention, I’d recommend talking to your doctor about coming off the drug right away.
