The Dangers of Aspirin

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid or ASA) is quite possibly the miracle drug of the 20th century. First created in 1853 by a French chemists named Charles Frederic Gerhardt, and patented in 1899 by Bayer, aspirin's three main uses are for fever reduction, heart attack and stroke prevention, and relieving minor aches and pains, including muscle aches, headaches, arthritis.

But aspirin has a dark side. If Aspirin had been developed in 2009, it would unlikely pass FDA guidelines. In a November 17, 2005 article in Medical Progress Today, Derek Lowe talks about why aspirin doesn't meet the cut. He calls aspirin"the best example" of a drug that we've taken for years, but doesn't meet today's standards. Lowe says aspirin "more or less doubles" the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, an event serious enough to put most sufferers in the hospital. The evidence in test animals is obvious. Lowe says, "Aspirin causes gastric lesions in rats and dogs, which are the standard small and large animal models for drug toxicity."
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An even darker side effect of aspirin may be Reye's syndrome. Children given aspirin for fevers and viral infections (chickenpox or influenza) have a higher chance of developing Reye's syndrome. Reye's is a rare but deadly illness that causes the brain and liver to swell. The number of children developing Reye's peaked around 1980, about the time doctors stopped prescribing aspirin to children for illnesses and fever.

Asthma sufferers have a higher chance of aspirin sensitivity than normal. Aspirin can cause asthma attacks in 3-5% of asthma sufferers, and as many as 20% of asthma sufferers may be intolerant to aspirin (only 5% are intolerant in the general population). The recommended advice for people with asthma is to simply not take aspirin.
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Aspirin can also cause tinnitus, and for a few people who cannot metabolize the drug, only a small amount of aspirin to cause an overdose leading to symptoms such as headache, hives, and swelling.

Do aspirin's benefits outweigh its risks? Besides reducing headaches and body aches, and fever in adults, chewing aspirin during a heart attack can save your life, as can taking aspirin daily, if you've suffered a heart attack or stroke in the past, to prevent future heart attacks or strokes. Aspirin can also prevent complications caused by heart attack and stroke, not only helping people live longer, but healthier.
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But the results seem to be muddled. In an article on May 28th, 2008, Heidi Stevenson lays out some startling revelations about aspirin and refutes the claims made by aspirin supporters. She states that not all strokes are created equal. Many strokes are caused by blood clots, but some are caused by bleeding inside the brain. Stevenson goes on to say that "it should have been obvious that routinely taking aspirin, or any blood thinner, carries the risk of increasing the incidence of bleeding strokes." On pancreatic cancer Stevenson writes that "A study of nearly 90,000 women at Brigham and Women's Hospital, spanning 18 years, shows a 58% increased risk of pancreatic cancer when the participants took more than two aspirin a week. When they took more than 14, the risk became 86% higher."
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Aspirin may kill as many people as it saves. Some reports state as many as 10,000 people die from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen (as of 1996 there were approximately 7,600 annual deaths in the United States: Source). But Reye's disease related to aspirin intake is 100% preventable simply by not giving children aspirin, and even gastrointestinal bleeding deaths can be prevented with proper medical attention (taking aspirin on a regular basis only under your doctor's supervision).

The moral here is to use common sense. There is no "wonder" drug that can cure everything without risk. Aspirin has its benefits, and it has its dangers, too, and no one should begin an aspirin regiment, or treat themselves with aspirin on a regular basis, without consulting their doctor first. You may think you're doing yourself a favor, but may only do more harm than good. Weigh your options, take the studies with a grain of salt, and do what is best for your personal situation, not what appears to help the general population. You may find that there are other remedies on the market that may work for you better than aspirin, with less risk to your health. Don't reach for a bottle of Bayer before you know.