Aspirin

A blood thinner that works slightly better than cheap aspirin at preventing repeat heart attacks or strokes is not worth the extra cost when used long term, a study concludes. Researchers looked at aspirin at 4 cents per pill, the drug Plavix at $3.22 a pill and a combination of the two to figure out their cost-effectiveness in treating heart disease.

It's a ritual that's beginning to make me feel less responsibly health conscious and more reliably heading toward old age. Every Sunday, I count out seven days' worth of a dozen different pills and load them into the daily compartments in my plastic medication bin. That's "geezer status," my daughter jokes, as I slip an extra set inside my purse, in case my memory-enhancing gingko biloba fails and I forget to swallow them before I leave home....

Americans prefer aspirin tablets that can be swallowed or chewed. * Italians like to down their aspirin in a fizzy liquid, similar to drinking Alka-Seltzer. * The British most often choose aspirin powders that are dissolved in water. * The French use more aspirin suppositories than pills. * It takes 20 to 30 minutes for two aspirin to begin entering the bloodstream. Food will slow its absorption. Peak levels of aspirin generally occur about two hours after the drug has been taken.

Earlier this week, three studies in the medical journal The Lancet ( here , here and here , no subscription required) co-authored by researcher Peter M. Rothwell of the University of Oxford in England and an accompanying comment (subscription required) by Andrew Chan and Nancy Cook of the Harvard Medical School all detailed results suggesting that a daily dose of aspirin can prevent cancer -- or at least slow its progress.  So does this mean health-conscious types should pop a Bayer every morning?

Taking aspirin regularly can help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke -- and now, we may be able to add pancreatic cancer to the list, researchers say. A study, presented at the American Assn. for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Fla., looked at 904 patients with pancreatic cancer and 1,224 cancer-free patients — all of whom were at least 55 years old. They found that people who took aspirin at least once a month were 26% less at risk of developing pancreatic cancer, and that those who took low doses of aspirin regularly to combat heart disease had a 35% lower risk of pancreatic cancer.

Taking mild painkilllers such as aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen during pregnancy, especially during the second trimester, can cause a sharp increase in reproductive problems in male offspring, researchers from Denmark, Finland and France reported Monday. The team found that women who used two of the drugs simultaneously during the second trimester were as much as 16 times as likely to bear a son with undescended testicles, a condition known as cryptorchidism. Cryptorchidism is known to be a risk factor for poor semen quality and testicular germ cell cancer in later life.

Women who take aspirin regularly after their breast cancer goes into remission are about 50% less likely to suffer a recurrence or to die from the disease, according to new findings from the ongoing Nurses' Health Study. The results, reported Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, are surprising because at least five large studies have shown that taking aspirin regularly has no effect on the risk of developing breast cancer in the first place. The study's authors described the findings as surprising and worthy of follow-up, but even they cautioned that survivors shouldn't yet begin prophylactic aspirin use. The new results could be because the process of metastasis of breast cancer is different than that of initiation and could thus be susceptible to influence by aspirin.

IT'S been almost two decades since the discovery that aspirin could help prevent heart attacks and strokes when taken regularly. Now a study suggests the analgesic pill may also help prevent the development of asthma in adults. The study, published in the Jan.

Patients with a genetic condition that increases their risk of colon and other cancers who took aspirin daily developed colon cancer less often than patients who took a placebo, researchers reported Thursday. The study, which was the first randomized controlled trial to look at the effect of aspirin on cancer rates, was published in the journal the Lancet. Professor John Burn, a geneticist at Newcastle University in England, led the research team.  The group followed 861 people with Lynch syndrome, which increases the risk of developing colon and other cancers.  Some of the patients took two 600 mg aspirins every day, others took a placebo.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced stronger warnings against the use of over-the-counter aspirin products by women in the last three months of pregnancy unless directed by a physician. The agency said the stronger warning on labels is being required because aspirin can affect fetal circulation and uterine contraction.

A wealthy backer of GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum left his interviewer scratching her head Thursday when he suggested that in the olden days, birth control was less expensive because women just squeezed an aspirin between their knees to prevent them from having sex. Foster Friess, the retired mutual fund executive from Wyoming who has been basking in the spotlight recently thanks to his six-figure donations to a 'super PAC' backing Santorum,...

The death of Whitney Houston over the weekend is still being investigated, and it might take weeks to get toxicology reports back, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said. That's not an unusual time frame for such a case, but why does it take so long? Several factors may be involved, experts said. The main issue may be a big backlog of cases, said Dr. Doug Rollins, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City: “Funding to most of these labs has been decreased,” he said, “so they don't have the staff to handle that large of a caseload.” Then there are the tests themselves.

Patients with a genetic condition that increases their risk of colon and other cancers who took aspirin daily developed colon cancer less often than patients who took a placebo, researchers reported Thursday. The study, which was the first randomized controlled trial to look at the effect of aspirin on cancer rates, was published in the journal the Lancet. Professor John Burn, a geneticist at Newcastle University in England, led the research team.  The group followed 861 people with Lynch syndrome, which increases the risk of developing colon and other cancers.  Some of the patients took two 600 mg aspirins every day, others took a placebo.

For people who've suffered a heart attack or are at risk for one, low doses of aspirin are a commonly prescribed apple-a-day to ward off future heart attacks.  But for some patients on the regimen, it's a treatment that should be taken ... seriously. In a new study, patients with a history of heart disease who had recently stopped low-dose aspirin were more likely to have a heart attack. European researchers tracked nearly 40,000 people with a history of heart disease, age 50 to 84, who had just started taking between 75 and 300 milligrams of aspirin per day. Within up to eight years of follow-up, some adhered to the treatment, while others stopped refilling their aspirin prescriptions.

Taking aspirin regularly can help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke -- and now, we may be able to add pancreatic cancer to the list, researchers say. A study, presented at the American Assn. for Cancer Research meeting in Orlando, Fla., looked at 904 patients with pancreatic cancer and 1,224 cancer-free patients — all of whom were at least 55 years old. They found that people who took aspirin at least once a month were 26% less at risk of developing pancreatic cancer, and that those who took low doses of aspirin regularly to combat heart disease had a 35% lower risk of pancreatic cancer.

Daily use of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, commonly known as NSAIDs, is associated with a 22% increase in the risk of erectile dysfunction, Kaiser researchers found in a study of more than 80,000 men in Southern California. The results were a surprise because erectile dysfunction, commonly abbreviated ED, is thought to be caused by inflammation, and the researchers expected that use of the drugs would alleviate the problem. Although the team controlled for a variety of other confounding factors, including age, smoking status, diabetes and other conditions, it is still possible that the men were taking the drugs to treat an underlying condition that was also causing the ED, the team wrote in report to be published in the April issue of the Journal of Urology.

Aspirin works as well as Coumadin, the oldest of stroke drugs, in helping patients avoid recurrent strokes, said a study aimed at settling a long-standing question among doctors. Many doctors suspected that Coumadin was more effective but that aspirin was safer. This study challenges both views, said Dr. J. P. Mohr, a neurologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York who led the research. Aspirin and Coumadin thin blood, warding off clots that can block blood vessels.

Question: How I wish your article on Coumadin interactions had appeared in the Los Angeles Times a little earlier. My doctor prescribed this blood thinner without asking me what other medicines I was taking. Within five days, I was urinating blood and clots. When I contacted the surgeon who operated on my prostate 18 months ago, he was puzzled. But when I mentioned Coumadin, he was aghast, because he had me taking aspirin daily.

Aspirin treatment has become standard for the prevention of heart attacks, particularly among middle-aged and older people at high risk for heart attacks. But taking a low-dose aspirin daily increases the likelihood of gastrointestinal bleeding, so some doctors suggest that aspirin should be taken with another medication -- a proton pump inhibitor -- to reduce the risk of bleeding. A new study, however, has found that adding the proton pump inhibitor isn't justified for most patients.

Should doctors be Facebook "friends" with their patients? Increasingly, professionals are stroking their beards and mulling the ethical ramifications (not to say potential for awkwardness) of such relationships. Goodbye to posting "Man, I tied one on last night" the morning of the day you're due to operate on someone. Farewell to blowing off steam about old Mr. XX, whose endless digestive issues drive you nuts: Loose words like that could come back to bite you even worse than accepting a "friend" request from some ex from those long-ago days when you were young and foolish.