New Study Shows Aspirin May Be Effective In Reducing Skin Cancer

Aspirin therapy for skin cancer has been suggested by a recent study to reduce the incidence of some skin cancers.

Study researcher, Sigrún Alba Jóhannesdóttir of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark has found that aspirin and other similar anti-inflammatory painkillers such as ibuprofen and naproxen can lessen the risk of three major types of skin cancer

People who took NSAIDs did not seem to benefit from a reduced risk of developing basal cell carcinoma in general, although they did have a 15 percent and 21 percent reduced risk of developing this type of cancer on less-exposed sites (body areas other than the head and neck) when they took them long term or at high intensity, respectively.

Low incidence of side affects, affordability and availability make aspirin a promising tool in fighting one of the leading cancers.

Sunscreen, reduced time to sun exposure and a diet rich in vitamin A have also been shown to reduce skin cancers.

An Aspirin A Day To Keep The Cancer Away

Aspirin therapy may be effective in preventing and even treating some cancers.

This is very promising news considering the high cost of medical care and the relatively inexpensive and highly accessible nature of aspirin.

There are drawbacks to using aspirin such as gastrointestinal bleeding, however these usally mild symptoms seemed to dissipate over time.

More studies need to be done, however the news is promising.

A new study finds that people who took a low-dose aspirin daily for at least three years were 25 percent less likely to develop cancer than people who didn’t take it.

Aspirin also reduced the risk of death from cancer by nearly 40 percent after five years, the researchers said.

The reduced risk of death may be due in part to a decrease in cancer’s ability to spread to other organs. In a second study, researchers found a daily dose of aspirin led to a 36 percent reduction in the risk of being diagnosed with cancer that spread to other organs.

Aspirin Therapy Under Review

An aspirin a day used to be the recommendation for stroke and heart attack patients for preventative measures.

However the risk of heavy internal bleeding is worse than the potential benefits, especially to healthy people.

The message seems to be that aspirin therapy causes more harm than it’s worth.

Currently, U.S. guidelines all recommend aspirin for primary prevention as long as the benefits outweigh the harms, an equation that depends on baseline risk. This advice is backed by an editorial accompanying the new report.

Daily Aspirin Therapy Tied to Loss of Vision

Although daily aspirin therapy is recommended to prevent heart attack and stroke it has been shown to contribute to macular degeneration in seniors.

The study, published in the journal Ophthalmology, included Norwegian, Estonian, British, French, Italian, Greek and Spanish seniors.

Of the 839 people who took aspirin each day, 36 had an advanced form of the disease called wet macular degeneration.

This equates to about four out of every 100 daily aspirin users.

In comparison, roughly two out of every 100 people who took aspirin less frequently had the same type of macular degeneration.

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