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NEWS > HEALTH > DOCTORS FIND ASPIRIN NOW DEADLY AND HARMFUL
DOCTORS FIND ASPIRIN NOW DEADLY AND HARMFUL
September 1 2009
London, U.K. – Of all the advances in medical sciences throughout the past few centuries there are few ailments that have received as much attention as pain. From topical analgesics to modern chemical cures, the management of pain has long been 
the bane and the lifeblood of the medical industry. The role of pain in the diagnosis of disease and damage has long been recognized as essential no matter how uncomfortable it makes the patient. Because of that discomfort the management of pain has become one of the most enduring parts of medicine.
One of the best known and most ubiquitous forms of pain control has been acetylsalicylic acid, better known as Aspirin. Everything from headaches to heart disease have been treated using one of the most popular drugs ever produced but now doctors are warning that Aspirin might not be as much of a cure all as once believed. According to a study conducted by British scientists it is now believed that Aspirin may in fact not solve all of the problems it was once believed to have cured and may in fact cause serious health problems in normally healthy people, with the possibility of serious internal bleeding and death chief among them.
“Aspirin probably leads to a minor reduction in future events but the problem is that has to be weighed against an increase in bleeding. Some of that bleeding can be quite serious and lead to death. Our research suggests that aspirin should not be prescribed to the general population at this stage,” said Professor Gerry Fowkes. “A lot of the worried well buy a small dose of aspirin over the counter not understanding that they are increasing their risk substantially of a major bleed. We recommend that people immediately stop taking Aspirin regularly in order to prevent such major and potentially devastating effects.”
The study was conducted in Scotland amongst 29,000 people over the age of fifty. It’s not believed that any of the test subjects fell victim to the more deleterious effects of the drug, though they were under regular medical supervision.
“There has long been a debate as to the ancillary effects of Aspirin and other types of
pain relievers but the truth is a lot of that thinking has been speculative. Up until a few years ago no one was exactly sure what it was that made aspirin work so the idea of using it as a cure-all for virtually every disease on the planet is really a little irrational and a little cavalier,” said Scrape TV Health analyst Rebecca Phelps. “Of course now that we know that it may in fact be seriously damaging that advice takes on a different perspective. I’m sure there are no doctors that prescribed aspirin to their patients had a suspicion that it could kill them but now they will hopefully take a second look. Hopefully they will also take a second look at the process of haphazardly prescribing drugs that haven’t been tested properly.”
Aspirin is still considered and over-the-counter drug and will likely remain so even in the face of the study, due in large part to its immense popularity.
“People continue to have pain and they are going to continue to seek relief from that pain so things like aspirin are likely to continue as they have been. It doesn’t hurt that aspirin is one of the best known and most successful of all drugs that virtually all companies have a significant investment in which of course makes it a durable drug,” continued Phelps. “I think that until people actually start dying doctors will continue to offer the drug as a treatment. Once the sting of this study goes away they will go back to normal and people will continue to buy up the drug just as much as they ever did. It’s much too popular to just go away because of a little study.”
U.S. doctors have not reported any increase in internal bleeding amongst aspirin takers, making it unlikely that the drug is going anywhere.
Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent
NEWS > HEALTH > DOCTORS FIND ASPIRIN NOW DEADLY AND HARMFUL
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