Which is the most important and well-known of aspirin side effects? Heart attack prevention.
Yes, an aspirin a day can literally save your life by helping to prevent a heart attack. Many people already know this and take one every day as they would a multivitamin.
However, the research had always been inconclusive on how effective this technique really is, and results varied wildly from one study to the next.
The James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research thinks they've found the answer. It's all about sex — well, gender, that is.
"Trials that recruited predominantly men demonstrated the largest risk reduction in non-fatal heart attacks," says Dr Don Sin, one of the study's authors. "The trials that contained predominately women failed to demonstrate a significant risk reduction in these non-fatal events. We found that a lot of the variability in these trials seems to be due to the gender ratios, supporting the theory that women may be less responsive to aspirin than men for heart protection."
They can't explain the large discrepancy just yet, but recent studies have revealed that there are major differences in the blood vessels of male and female hearts.
So, while they figure that out, men are free to continue their aspirin-a-day routine, but women should wait for further results.
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What are the risk of taking aspirin though?
Great question David.
It's important to note that the aspirin-a-day routine certainly isn't for everyone. Primarily, you should only use this technique if you are at an above average risk of having a heart attack, such as family history or being overweight, and of course, after consulting your doctor.
Some perfectly healthy individuals also opt to go this route, but as this article points out, that may not be the best idea:
http://seniorhealth.about.com/cs/heartdisease/a/aspirin_heart_2.htm
could swelling of my ankles and legs be caused by aspirin ?