Mirror: Harvard scientists found that middle-aged people who regularly took a low-dose aspirin are less likely to be diagnosed with cancer of any kind.
This tiny pill could slash your risk of bowel cancer by a fifth. Better still, Harvard scientists found that middle-aged people who regularly took a low-dose aspirin (81mg in US) are less likely to be diagnosed with cancer of any kind.
The researchers followed 136,000 people for 32 years, and if their findings were to be applied in Britain, 6,000 cases of bowel, stomach, pancreatic, intestinal and oesophageal cancer could be prevented every year.
So, people with a family history of these cancers should think about taking a low dose of aspirin daily.
Study author Professor Andrew Chan, a cancer expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, US, said: “It would be very reasonable for individuals to discuss with their physicians the advisability of taking aspirin to prevent gastrointestinal cancer, particularly if they have risk factors such as a family history.”
Other risk factors are age, obesity , smoking and eating lots of red meat .
Participants were taking aspirin because of headaches, arthritis or muscle problems, or because their doctor had prescribed the drug to ward off the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The most dramatic effect was on bowel cancer , which affects 41,000 people in Britain every year, where the risk fell by nearly 20%. It’s also possible aspirin may also slow the spread of bowel cancer once it has taken hold. Taking low dose aspirin for at least six years lowered the risk of all cancer.
Fuente: www.mirror.co.uk
