The conventional wisdom that taking a daily aspirin will help prevent heart attacks and strokes in otherwise healthy people is under renewed challenge.
A major international study led in part by a Minnesota physician has found that healthy people over age 70 got no preventive benefit from aspirin and were at greater risk for harm such as stomach bleeding. It's the third major study this year to reach a similar conclusion.
"We hope this shifts the paradigm for people 70 and older who are considering taking aspirin," said Dr. Anne Murray, a geriatrician at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis who led the research along with Dr. John McNeil in Australia.
"We found no measurable benefit to taking aspirin to prolong healthy life, and actually it may induce harm," Murray said.
The study did not include people who have heart disease, and Murray cautioned that anyone currently taking aspirin, especially if they are at high risk, should consult their doctor before making any changes. The study, released Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 19,000 older healthy people enrolled for nearly five years.
In August, two other large studies produced similar results. One tracked 12,000 middle-aged people with cardiovascular risk factors, the other looked at 15,000 patients with diabetes.
To varying degrees, the research found that those taking low-dose aspirin had a higher risk for developing bleeding in the stomach or the brain, both of which could require hospitalization.
There was little benefit to their heart health for people at low or moderate cardiovascular risk.