A small dose of aspirin every day substantially diminishes death rate from a range of common cancer, suggests a major study. The research team from Oxford University found the first ultimate evidence that aspirin reduces overall cancer death rates by third just after five years of use.
The use of aspirin is already known to slash the risk of heart attack and stroke among those who are at raised risk. However, the defensive effects against cardiovascular disease are thought to be small for healthy adults and aspirin raises the risks of stomach and gut bleeds.
But the latest research have shown that when evaluating the risks with the benefits of taking aspirin, the experts should also consider the protective effects of aspirin against cancer. Those were given aspirin had twenty-five percent lower risk of death due to cancer during survey period and ten percent decline in death due to any cause.
The long term use of aspirin showed its protective effects on more than twelve thousand patients and the effect continued for twenty years both in males and females as well. The findings might well underrate the diminution in deaths that would result from longer-term treatment with aspirin, explained lead researcher Prof Peter Rothwell.
The risk of cancer death was condensed by twenty percent over twenty years. For bowel cancer death was condensed by forty percent, thirty percent for lung cancer, ten percent for prostate cancer and sixty percent for oesophageal cancer. There were not enough statistics available to show affect on breast and ovarian cancer.
Professor Peter Elwood, an epidemiologist from Cardiff University, who carried out some of the first studies into the effects of aspirin on health, stated that taking aspirin at night and with calcium seemed to enhance its effects. He suggested taking it with a glass of milk since this could also reduce stomach irritation.
A levelheaded time to think starting daily aspirin use would be between forty to fifty and continuing for around twenty-five years.