IS ASPIRIN GOOD FOR YOU?

THERE IS AN OLD SAYING IN ALL MEDICAL SCHOOLS, WHEN STUDENTS GRADUATE: “EVERYTHING YOU’VE JUST LEARNED WILL BE TOTALLY FALSE THIRTY YEARS FROM NOW!” (SAD TO SAY, THIS IS TRUE.)

A little after I graduated from Medical School, the ERA OF ASPIRIN began. All doctors, all over the World, learned that Aspirin taken daily would prevent heart attacks. Today, the population of the Planet is addicted to taking Aspirin on a daily basis. Most of the world’s population takes its Aspirin because:

1. It’s cheap.
2. All doctors advise it.
3. The Media encourages it.

NOW, MEDICAL SCIENTISTS ARE ANNOUNCING THAT: NOT ONLY DOES ASPIRIN NOT PREVENT HEART ATTACKS! ASPIRIN CAUSES THEM!

ALL THE FACTS ARE COVERED IN AN EXTENSIVE REPORT PUBLISHED IN FUTURE CARDIOLOGY, MARCH 2010, BY A GROUP OF BRITISH CARDIOLOGISTS, LED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CARDIOLOGY OF THE HULL AND YORK MEDICAL SCHOOL.

Here are the questions asked by the Hull and York cardiologists:

• Aspirin Fallacies: Is there a Sound Biological Rationale for Aspirin?
• Is Long-term Aspirin Therapy Effective?
• Is Aspirin Safe?
• Is the Correct Dose of Aspirin Known?
• Is Aspirin an Appropriate Background Therapy for Other Anti-thrombotic Agents?
• Has the Introduction of New Treatments Altered the Efficacy of Aspirin?
• Is Aspirin inexpensive?
• Is Aspirin Free from Commercial Interest?

The question that interested me most was the last one: Is Aspirin free from Commercial Interest.

When I learned that it was not, I could easily predict the answers to the other questions. I will summarize the answers for readers so that they can make a sound judgment concerning their use of aspirin to prevent possible heart attacks.

QUESTION NUMBER 1: Aspirin Fallacies: Is there a Sound Biological Rationale for Aspirin?

ANSWER: Yes and No.

Aspirin inhibits the ability of Platelets to form a clot. A clot causes the blockage of an artery and causes a heart attack. For this reason, doctors felt a patient should take aspirin to prevent clots. But, that is not the whole story. The clot originally forms from bleeding into a plaque on the arterial wall. If there is no plaque, there can be no bleeding and no clot formation. If a plaque has formed, and bleeding has occurred aspirin will prevent the bleeding to progress into a clot.

Thus, in the acute event, when bleeding from the plaque occurs, aspirin should be used.

BUT, should it be used to prevent plaques? Should Aspirin be used by everyone in order to prevent heart attacks? NO!

The use of Aspirin actually accelerates the formation of plaques, and people who use it as a preventive have either had no benefit or have had more heart attacks than the people who do not use it! This fact has been demonstrated by a number of long studies. (See reference 5).

The reason that aspirin does not prevent plaques is because Aspirin interferes with VASO-DILATOR PROSTAGLANDIN production, a molecule which protects the arterial wall.

Here is the excerpt from the paper which explains this mechanism
There is moderately compelling evidence that low-dose aspirin accelerates the progression of atheroma.^[13,14]

Once an event has occurred, most patients will develop an ulcerated plaque and thrombus, providing a theoretical substrate for the short-term benefit of aspirin.^[15]

Once the ulcer has healed, continued aspirin therapy may impair vessel wall defenses against further events by blocking vasodilator prostaglandin production, thereby neutralizing any ant platelet effects, explaining the neutral outcome in most long-term studies of aspirin and an increase in coronary events in some.^[5]

CONCLUSION: Give aspirin if a patient is having a heart attack and for up to 4 weeks after. Then stop. Using aspirin to prevent an attack either does nothing or increases the number of heart attacks.

QUESTION NUMBER 2: Is Aspirin Safe?

ANSWER: No!

1. Aspirin can cause fatal hemorrhages from the stomach and esophagus and intestine.

2. Aspirin causes anemia.

3. Aspirin cause kidney disease

4, Aspirin cause lung disease.

QUESTION NUMBER 3: Is the correct dose of Aspirin known?

ANSWER: No!

Here is the answer of the Cardiologists

No substantial long-term study of aspirin use after myocardial infarction has ever been conducted with a dose of less than 300 mg/day aspirin.^[18]

And yet, everyone and his brother are taking LOW DOSE ASPIRIN, 81 MG, on a daily basis. Why? No one knows.

QUESTION NUMBER 4: Is Aspirin an Appropriate Background Therapy for Other Anti-thrombotic Agents?

ANSWER: What this question means is: Should doctors use Aspirin as a gauge or standard for the use of other “blood thinners”? We have all heard of other blood thinners apart from Aspirin.

Plavix is the most popular today. However, since Aspirin shows no benefit in long term use, why use something stronger?

Here is the statement of the cardiologists

If short-term beats long-term therapy that suggests that toxicity from longer-term use overrides any benefit. At the moment, there is no evidence that continuing use of any antiplatelet agent for more than 4–12 weeks after a coronary event is in the patient’s interest.

This point seems to be lost on those who regulate drug licenses.

QUESTION NUMBER 6: Has the introduction of new treatments altered the efficacy of Aspirin?

ANSWER: In the last twenty years, after the introduction of Aspirin therapy, three new important therapies for heart disease have been introduced: “STATINS” for lowering cholesterol, the most popular is Lipitor. “ACE inhibitors” for blood pressure control.

These all end with PRIL such as Lisinopril. Beta Blockers for heart control, such as Propranolol. These all end with OLOL and they are prescribed like chocolate chip cookies. If you are over forty, you are taking one. We are now learning that Aspirin reduces the benefits of all three classes of these drugs!

QUESTION NUMBER 7: Is aspirin cheap?

ANSWER: It appears to be cheap. A box of Aspirin costs less than two U.S. Dollars. The cost of making Aspirin is remarkably cheap and the manufacturers make at least one dollar profit per box. There are billions of boxes sold around the world, with BAYER being the most popular brand. We can see that the manufacturers make billions in profit. But, there is more to the cost of Aspirin than its cost per box. Because there are so many side effects, such as bleeding and kidney disease, Aspirin costs the health care systems around the world billions in diagnosis and treatment of the side effects!

Add it up and Aspirin is expensive.

QUESTION NUMBER 8: Is Aspirin Free from Commercial Interest?

ANSWER: Here is the answer from the Cardiologists..

Aspirin is a multibillion dollar international business. This industry promotes aspirin and is probably mostly responsible for the current medical views that are held.

The industry rarely reports any of the substantial body of adverse data. It appears as if those who regulate the industry have been persuaded by the aspirin lobby, permitting and maybe even promoting a biased presentation of the evidence. Every so often, we need to take a fresh look at every issue. Let us hope that this is the case for aspirin in 2010.

DR. PINNA SAYS:

I just stopped taking Aspirin! I checked the references, and did my own research, and my conclusion is that Aspirin is potentially very dangerous, in terms of gastro-intestinal bleeding and acceleration of arterial disease. Also, much more dangerous: If one has a stroke in the form of a hemorrhage, it will be worse if you are taking Aspirin. You will bleed more and your medical team will find it harder to stop the bleeding. If you need emergency surgery, for an accident; or, if you have an accident, taking Aspirin will make things worse.

REFERENCES:

1. Baigent C, Blackwell L, Collins R et al.: Aspirin in the primary and secondary prevention of vascular disease: collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data from randomised trials. Lancet 373(9678),1849-1860 (2009).
2. Cleland JGF, Coletta AP, Yassin A, Buga L, Torabi A, Clark AL: Clinical trials update from the European Society of Cardiology Meeting 2009: AAA, RELY, PROTECT, ACTIVE-I, European CRT Survey, German pre-SCD II Registry and MADIT-CRT. Eur. J. Heart Fail. 11(12),1214-1219 (2009).
3. Belch J, MacCuish A, Campbell I et al.: The Prevention of Progression of Arterial Disease and Diabetes (POPADAD) trial: factorial randomised placebo controlled trial of aspirin and antioxidants in patients with diabetes and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease. BMJ 337,1840-1850 (2008).
4. Ogawa H, Nakayama M, Morimoto T et al.: Low-dose aspirin for primary prevention of atherosclerotic events in patients with Type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 301(18),1882 (2008).
5. Pulmonary Embolism Prevention (PEP) Trial Collaborative Group: Prevention of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis with low dose aspirin: Pulmonary Embolism Prevention (PEP) trial. Lancet 355(9212),1295-1302 (2000).
6. Cleland JGF: For debate: preventing atherosclerotic events with aspirin. BMJ 324(7329),103-105 (2002).
7. Steering Committee of Physicians Health Study Group: Final report on the aspirin component of the ongoing Physician’s Health Study. N. Engl. J. Med. 321,129-135 (1989).
8. Hansson L, Zanchetti A, Carruthers SG et al.: Effect of intensive blood pressure lowering and low-dose aspirin in patients with hypertension: principal results of the Hypertension Optimal Treatment (HOT) randomised trial. Lancet 351,1755-1762 (1998).
9. Cleland JG: Time for a proper study of aspirin after a vascular event? BMJ 337,A2583 (2008).
10. Dickstein K, Cohen-Solal A, Filippatos G et al.: ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2008: the Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2008 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association of the ESC (HFA) and endorsed by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM). Eur. Heart J. 29(19),2388-2442 (2008).
11. Hunt SA, Abraham WT, Chin MH et al.: ACC/AHA 2005 guideline update for the diagnosis and management of chronic heart failure in the adult: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on practice guidelines. Circulation 112,154-235 (2005).
12. Wald NJ, Wald DS: The polypill concept. Heart 96(1),1-4 (210).
13. Knottenbelt C, Brennan PJ, Meade TW; for the MRC General Practice Research Framework: Antithrombotic treatment and the incidence of angina pectoris. Ann. Intern. Med. 162,881-886 (2002).

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