Aspirin's anti-cancer effects backed by more research
CBC
– 2 hours 34 minutes ago
Newly published international papers are adding to growing
research that Aspirin, commonly used now for people in danger of heart
attack and stroke, may also help prevent and treat cancer.
Two papers in the Lancet and one paper in the Lancet Oncology, all published
Tuesday, chronicle research suggesting daily use of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA,
sold under the brand name Aspirin in Canada and other countries) can reduce the
long-term risk of cancer death.
However, researchers from the U.K. and Italy, led by Prof. Peter
Rothwell of the University of Oxford and John Radcliffe Hospital in
England, stress that the short-term effects of daily use of the non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory, as well as how risky or beneficial it may be over time, have
yet to be determined.
Currently, in North America, medical practitioners are urged to put anyone
who has had a heart attack or stroke on anti-platelet therapy (low-dose ASA, to
prevent clots) because it can greatly reduce the risk of deadly recurrence.
The Lancet-published papers break down like this:
Article 1: The authors studied individual patient data from 51 randomized
trials of daily Aspirin versus no Aspirin use to prevent heart
attacks. They found Aspirin reduced the risk of a cancer death
by 15 per cent compared with control subjects, and this improved to a 37 per
cent reduced risk of a cancer death for patients taking the medication five
years and longer. The reduction in cancer
deaths for those taking Aspirin resulted in a 12 per cent reduction in
deaths not related to the cardiovascular system. "In view of
the very low rates of vascular events in recent and ongoing trials of Aspirin in
primary prevention, prevention of cancer could become the main justification for
Aspirin use in this setting," the researcher wrote.
Article 2: For the study on the effect of Aspirin on how cancer spreads
(metastasis), new data was collected on metastases of cancers that were
diagnosed during all five large randomized trials of daily Aspirin (75
milligrams or more daily), versus control for the prevention of cardio-related
events in the U.K. They found that, with an average followup of 6.5
years, the use of Aspirin reduced the risk of cancer with "distant
metastasis" by 36 per cent, cut the risk of colon, lung and prostate
cancers by 46 per cent, and reduced the chance of bladder and kidney cancers by
18 per cent. Aspirin reduced the overall risk of fatal cancers in the trial
populations by 35 per cent, but not the risk of blood and other fatal cancers.
"These findings provide the first proof in humans that Aspirin prevents
distant cancer metastasis," the researchers note, adding that metastasis
had been prevented in previous studies involving animals.
Article 3: This paper reviewed the effect of Aspirin on metastatic cancer
using a review of observational versus randomized trials. Researchers found
observational studies showed a 38 per cent reduced risk of colorectal cancer,
compared to 42 per cent in randomized trials. Similar matches in risk were found
for esophageal, gastric, biliary and breast cancer, prompting the researchers to
say, "Observational studies show that regular use of Aspirin reduces the
long-term risk of several cancers and the risk of distant metastasis."
In a commentary linked to the published research, scientists from Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston said the studies make
"a convincing case" that the cardiovascular-protection and anti-cancer
benefits of Aspirin
outweigh the harms that may include excess bleeding (hemorrhage), and
"moves us another step closer to broadening recommendations for Aspirin
use."
However, they warn, "these analyses do not account for less serious
adverse effects on quality of life, such as less severe bleeding."
Although the Lancet-published studies received no specific funding, Rothwell
has received honoraria for serving on advisory boards, clinical trial committees
and giving talks from some pharmaceutical companies with an interest in
anti-platelet agents, including Bayer, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi-BMS
and Servier.
"Although the Lancet-published studies received no specific funding, Rothwell has received honoraria for serving on advisory boards, clinical trial committees and giving talks from some pharmaceutical companies with an interest in anti-platelet agents, including Bayer, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi-BMS and Servier."
That pretty much says it all. If not, Google "aspirin dangers". And then check and see how many of the aspirins used in studies which showed benefits for reduced risk of stroke and/or heart attack were buffered with magnesium. All of the early studies which showed benefit used aspirin with magnesium and I suspect we may see some of the same effects for the anti-cancer aspirin products.
At any rate, changing to a healthy diet and lifestyle and building and keeping a strong immune system is the ticket for preventing cancer, not taking drugs. No one gets cancer or becomes ill due to a deficiency in aspirin or any other pharmaceutical item. A great many do become ill from taking unnatural pharmaceutical products.
"That
pretty much says it all. If not, Google "aspirin dangers". And then
check and see how many of the aspirins used in studies which showed benefits for
reduced risk of stroke and/or heart attack were buffered with magnesium. All of
the early studies which showed benefit used aspirin with magnesium and I suspect
we may see some of the same effects for the anti-cancer aspirin products."
That's a silly back door approach to an alien conspiracy theory that has no
validity whatsoever. I take an aspirin each day and I haven't seen a
buffered product on the shelf in years. In fact, it's difficult to even
find "Bayer" on the shelf any more particularly when Costco competes
with them so well.
Those studies ALL include people in them who are on a healthy diet and
lifestyle and preaching your line has never succeeded. (In fact, Michelle
Obama gets trashed every day for promoting that same idea.) So, at the
cost of aspirin these days I figure it costs me a good $3 a year to follow those
guidelines and there are many other benefits to it besides cancer prevention -
which is not why I take it. My goodness - Costco's bottom line (oh how I
love those bottom lines) is going to really benefit from my $5 purchase every
eighteen months.
From the original post:
"Aspirin reduced the risk of a cancer death by 15 per cent
compared with control subjects, and this improved to a 37 per cent reduced risk
of a cancer death for patients taking the medication five years and longer."
What is it about the 37% reduced risk of cancer deaths is it that you don't
like?
Having spent a career in Information Technology it was commonplace to run
into the Not Invented Here syndrome over and over again - at a horrible added
cost to my employer.
Not invented here (NIH) is a term used to describe
persistent social, corporate, or institutional culture that avoids using or
buying already existing products, research, standards, or knowledge because of
their external origins. It is normally used in a pejorative sense, and may be
considered an anti-pattern. The reasons for not wanting to use the work of
others are varied but can include fear through lack of understanding, an
unwillingness to value the work of others, or forming part of a wider "turf
war". The opposite
culture is sometimes denoted proudly found elsewhere (PFE)
or invented here.
As a social phenomenon, "Not Invented Here" syndrome is manifested
as an unwillingness to adopt an idea or product because it originates from
another culture, a form of nationalism.
In computing
An argument for NIH is to guard against an aggressive action by another
company buying up a technology supplier so as to create a captive market. This
may also guard against future supply issues due to political unrest or other
issues.
In programming, it is also common to refer to the NIH Syndrome as the
tendency towards reinventing the wheel (reimplementing something that is
already available) based on the belief that in-house developments are inherently
better suited, more secure or more controlled than existing implementations.
"What is it about the 37% reduced risk of cancer deaths is it that you don't like? "
Achieving it through the use of aspirin is what.
If you choose to take aspirin regularly and erode the lining of your stomach, increase the risk of intestinal bleeding and bleeding from the brain, feel free.
In addition, aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) belongs to a family of allergens known as salicylates. People who are allergic are at risk of suffering serious side effects, including fatal ones. As a matter of fact, aspirin and aspirin related products kill over 30,000 people each year in the U.S.
As I said earlier, good nutrition and lifestyle and building and keeping a strong immune system it the best way to prevent cancer. People who do that can reduce their risks of cancer and other illness by much more than 37%. If you want to live and eat really healthily and throw in a few natural cancer preventives I believe that cancer is as much as 90% or more preventable.
Rather than being a nutrient, aspirin is an anti-nutrient. It depletes the body of the life-saving nutrient folic acid (as well as iron, potassium, sodium, and vitamin C). Symptoms of folic acid depletion include anemia, birth defects, elevated homocysteine (itself a significant risk factor for heart disease), headache, fatigue, hair loss, insomnia, diarrhea, and increased infection.
There may not be a huge amount of profit per bottle of aspirin sold, but with annual worldwide sales of over a billion dollars, it is huge moneymaker nevertheless. And Bayer continues to lead the market with sales actually increasing each year. Last year they increased 24%. Whatever profit there is, not a nickel of it will come from me.
Do the same thing with Betaine HCL... and get the health benefits too.
works best in people who have high homocysteine levels and methylation issues as the Betaine acts as a methyl donor converting homocysteine to methionine. There is some evidence that this can can prevent the expression of harmful genes, such as cancer genes.
In people who manufacture too much digestive acids... this is very likely not so.
NOTE: as implied... results and benefits depend upon the individual. There is **no one size fits all**.
"As
a matter of fact, aspirin and aspirin related products kill over 30,000 people
each year in the U.S."
Please back that up. The OP shows that dosages as low as 75 mg per day
prevent cancer. Show us where that dosage kills people. Also show
that the "natural" alternative, willow bark, is any better and that's
been used for thousands of years. Yes there are people who are allergic to
anything. I actually witnessed a guy go into convulsions after one Pabst
Blue Ribbon beer. The medical diagnosis was that he was allergic to beer
and could never again drink it. It happens all the time with a wide
variety of food products.
Enteric coated tablets greatly reduce or even eliminate the stomach lining
problems you cite and their cost is little more than the standard baby aspirin.
...The total for every cancer death except nonmelanoma skin cancer in the
United States is over 565,000 people. Lung cancer
is first among the killer cancers in the United States. The unreported fact is
that the invisible gas radon accounts for 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year
for the United States.
By your logic exercise should be avoided as well. Jim Fixx "the
'father' of running" died while jogging. Not only him but many, many
others as well. Don't want to die? Don't jog. However, life
will eventually catch up with you and everyone else and your body will in fact
die.
"As
I said earlier, good nutrition and lifestyle and building and keeping a strong
immune system it the best way to prevent cancer."
As I said before, that's exactly what Michelle Obama teaches and how many
follow it? In fact there are millions of Americans who hate her for the
reason of that very specific recommendation.
I agree with DQ.
Why take a manufactured drug called aspirin to make profits exclusively for drug companies, when you could just as easily take white willow bark, and receive the same if not better benefits.............. http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/willow-bark-000281.htm
.....Taking a low (75-300mg) daily dose of the drug appeared to cut the
total number of cancer cases by about a quarter after only three years - there
were nine cancer cases per 1,000 each year in the aspirin-taking group, compared
with 12 per 1,000 for those taking dummy pills.
.....And if patients stayed on aspirin for longer, their cancer death risk
went down even further - by 37% after five years.
Aspirin is simply a manufactured element of willow bark. It's not that
the link above is promoting aspirin and wild living as a way to prevent cancer,
in fact in the study review a doctor says:
...for most fit and healthy people, the most important things they can do
to reduce their lifetime cancer risk is to give up smoking, take exercise and
have a healthy diet.
Are you aware Chris that the most difficult advice for a lung or throat
cancer patient to follow is to - quit smoking? Even after lung
removal? Just looking around us both in the USA and UK, how far does the
advice of "...exercise and have a healthy diet go?" It ain't
working! That's what Michelle Obama promotes here in the USA and millions
of people hate her for it.
"Aspirin is simply a manufactured element of willow bark."
Aspirin is a synthesized version of the compound identified in willow bark as the primary active ingredient. It i no way comes from actual willow bark and, like all sythetics, is not the same as the natural version.
I am not sure that millions hate Michelle Obama for her advice on diet and exercise, but I can tell you why so many are unwilling to follow such advice or advice to quit smoking - because maim-stream medicine has spent billions and billions promoting the idea of obtaining a "cure in a bottle", and though patently wrong, it is far easier to take a maim-stream drug - such as aspirin - and continue with bad health habits than it is to make the effort to live and eat healthily.
Daily aspirin use is actually dangerous. Mainstream studies have proved the dangers of aspirin use. Strokes due to hemorrhaging (hemorrhagic strokes) were up significantly in all of their studies.
Randomized clinical trials testing aspirin in 5011 elderly people, 58% of whom were women, mean age 72 years, followed for a mean of 4.2 years, showed that use of aspirin caused a 4-fold increase in hemorrhagic stroke (P=0.003) and a 1.6- to 1.8-fold increase in ischemic stroke. [R. A. Kronmal et al., Stroke 29, 887-894 (1998)]
All the studies showed increases in gastrointestinal disorders and allergic reactions. Using aspirin over a period of time can lead to internal bleeding, stomach ulcers, kidney dysfunction, and death.
From the Associated Press in 1999, death by analgesics (over the counter pain killers such as aspirin and NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) is the 15th most common cause of death in America. The silent epidemic, the author called it.
And then there is Reye’s syndrome and allergic reactions to aspirin: 1,600 children die each year from allergic reactions to aspirin.
From the World Chiropractic Alliance (Feb 1999) we get:
Patients with blockage of arteries to the brain are three times more likely to have a stroke if they are taking aspirin; dyspepsia and gastrointestinal hemorrhage occur in 31% of those taking 300 mg of aspirin per day; even low doses of aspirin can increase the risk of brain hemorrhage; other side effects can include anemia, bleeding ulcers, confusion and dizziness and numerous other problems.
Aspirin breaks down or converts into ascetic acid inside the body and eats up red blood cells, just like white distilled vinegar does. Therefore, aspirin use pollutes the blood which is the essence of life. In addition to polluting and eating up the blood, aspirin greatly thins the blood. Many people take aspirin daily as a blood thinner. These people's arteries are so clogged, rather than cleansing the arteries in order to improve or enhance blood flow, doctors unwisely prescribe aspirin to thin the blood which is very dangerous because lack of blood equals lack of oxygen flow, and lack of oxygen flow to the brain will undoubtedly result in stroke. The herb "gingko biloba" is a much better and safer medicinal and alternative to aspirin as it is a mild blood thinner, but unlike aspirin, it greatly enhances oxygen flow throughout the body.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) reports that nearly 4,000 Americans have been killed by H1N1 swine flu, but more than FOUR times as many people are killed each year by common NSAID painkillers like aspirin.
The July 1998 issue of The American Journal of Medicine explains it as follows.................
"Conservative calculations estimate that approximately 107,000 patients are hospitalized annually for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-related gastrointestinal (GI) complications and at least 16,500 NSAID-related deaths occur each year among arthritis patients alone." (Singh Gurkirpal, MD, “Recent Considerations in Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Gastropathy”, The American Journal of Medicine, July 27, 1998, p. 31S)
So for every person the CDC claims was killed by H1N1 swine flu this year, common painkillers like aspirin have killed four.
This isn't rocket Science you know.
Cancer prevention is defined as active measures to decrease the incidence of cancer. This can be accomplished by avoiding carcinogens or altering their metabolism, pursuing a lifestyle or diet that modifies cancer-causing factors and/or medical intervention (chemoprevention, treatment of pre-malignant lesions).
Exercise for Cancer Prevention
Know Your Personal and Family Medical History
Know What You're Being Exposed to in Your Work Environment
Get Screened for Cancer Regularly
Limit Your Alcohol Intake
Limit Red Meat and Animal Fat
Avoid Smoking and Exposure to Smoke
Home
Long term aspirin usage prevents cancer 
CBC
– 2 hours 34 minutes ago
