Low-Dose Aspirin Offers No Overall Benefit for Healthy Older Adults, Research Says

Even at low doses, long-term use of aspirin may be harmful, without providing benefit for older adults who have not previously had a heart attack or stroke, according to a series of studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine . The study involved more than 19,000 people ages 65 and older in the United States and Australia, reports the Washington Post . For older, healthy people, "the risks outweigh the benefits for taking low-dose aspirin," said Anne Murray, a geriatrician and epidemiologist at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, who helped lead the study. The primary risk is bleeding. The study confirmed that a daily baby aspirin increases the risk for serious, potentially life-threatening bleeding. Those who took daily aspirin also appeared to be more likely to die overall, apparently from an increased risk of succumbing to cancer, a finding that was especially unexpected given previous evidence that aspirin might reduce the risk for colorectal cancer. The researchers stressed, however, that the cancer finding might have been a fluke. Nevertheless, there is still strong evidence that a daily baby aspirin can reduce the risk of a second heart attack for those who have already had a heart attack or a stroke. And there is some evidence that daily low-dose aspirin may help people younger than 70 who have at least a 10 percent risk of having a heart attack avoid a heart attack or stroke, according to the latest recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.