An Aspirin a Day, Takes Bowel Cancer Away

Not only is aspirin good for the heart, its daily dose also has the potential to prevent bowel cancer (a.k.a. colorectal or colon cancer).

Examining data on 7,500 people who were involved in two UK trials conducted in the 1970s and the 1980s and were randomly assigned to receive 300, 500 or 1,200mg of aspirin per day for a period of seven years (against placebo) found that:

• 300mg of aspirin per day for five years was associated with a 75 percent reduction in the risk of developing bower cancer in the next decade
• aspirin was found effective regardless of the sex, age or race of the participants

An accompanying review of 30 other studies also found that aspirin exerted a protective effect against bowel cancer in 50 to 60 percent of the cases.

Such were the findings recently reported in the journal The Lancet.

According to lead researcher Professor Peter Rothwell:

“What we are saying is that for a subgroup of people at high risk of bowel cancer, they probably aren’t going to be dramatically harmed by taking aspirin. They may have some risk of bleeding in the stomach, but they will see potentially significant benefits in the reduction of their colon cancer risk.”

Read the full report.