An Aspirin a Day might not be Okay

[MEH Synergy]

Cardiac disease (case in discussion) is very unfortunate and another that sneaks up on far too many.  Wish you all the best in health. 

[wvu80]

From the CNN article:

 

Quote

(CNN)It's one of the most well-known tenets of modern medicine: An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away.

 

The phrase is "an APPLE a day keeps the doctor away."

[ClaudeJ1]

1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

https://www.puritan.com/medicine-cabinet-1249/pplow-dose-aspirin81mg360-020488

 

3 years for $18.00.

That's the price of a single Band Aid on a Hospital Bill.

 

[CECAA850]

42 minutes ago, ClaudeJ1 said:

That's the price of a single Band Aid on a Hospital Bill.

 

In all fairness, you're paying for your band aid plus the band aids of all the other people that can't afford band aids.

[MEH Synergy]

You are correct.   Glad you understand that.  

[dtel]

So I thought about this  a couple weeks ago so we got some baby aspirin and I started taking them daily, for about 2 days and then forgot about it.

 

So the consensus here is to start taking them again, or not ?  Only answer if your one who would not be happy to hear I dropped dead, that way I know if it's a fair decision. 

[Max2]

You know, its just like crying wolf about something that never amounts to anything.  A broke clock is right twice a day, yet our science and medical society insist on being wrong even though claiming to be right.  How many things can we recall that have been proclaimed "good" for you only to figure out that not only it wasn't helping or good, it was bad.   Right about 15 years ago is where we all stop believing what anyone has to say, well maybe way before then.

 

[windashine]

5 minutes ago, dtel said:

So I thought about this  a couple weeks ago so we got some baby aspirin and I started taking them daily, for about 2 days and then forgot about it.

 

So the consensus here is to start taking them again, or not ?  Only answer if your one who would not be happy to hear I dropped dead, that way I know if it's a fair decision. 

 

I'm not a doctor, but, try it you'll like it, so yes, continue, carry on, 81 mg low dose.....

[jimjimbo]

9 minutes ago, dtel said:

start taking them again, or not ? 

Absolutely Yes.

[ClaudeJ1]

1 hour ago, CECAA850 said:

In all fairness, you're paying for your band aid plus the band aids of all the other people that can't afford band aids.

I had to laugh at the "all fairness" words in the first part of the sentence. Funny stuff...............like the words, "Planned Parenthood," which is an oxymoron at best. If the parenthood was planned, they would have had the sex without the pregnancy, but instead they practice "Unplanned Non-Parenthood," which is "Radial Parenthood Avoidance"  for the big "oops" in its murderous form.

[CECAA850]

12 minutes ago, dtel said:

So I thought about this  a couple weeks ago so we got some baby aspirin and I started taking them daily, for about 2 days and then forgot about it.

 

So the consensus here is to start taking them again, or not ?  Only answer if your one who would not be happy to hear I dropped dead, that way I know if it's a fair decision. 

If your Dr told you to take them then take them.  if you're taking random stuff because you think it might be good for you then probably not.

[dtel]

1 minute ago, CECAA850 said:

If your Dr told you to take them then take them.  if you're taking random stuff because you think it might be good for you then probably not.

Just thought it might be a good idea.

 

I take no medicine, 3-4 times a year if i have a headache I might take an aspirin, no other "prescribed" medicine. Excluding my self prescribed Glaucoma prevention medicine. 

 

I don't have a doctor, last time I went to one was for that skin thing I had and she is a Dermatologist,  and years before that to have a appendix removed. I don't go, they always find something wrong. I only go if something hurts.

[CECAA850]

33 minutes ago, dtel said:

Just thought it might be a good idea.

 

I take no medicine, 3-4 times a year if i have a headache I might take an aspirin, no other "prescribed" medicine. Excluding my self prescribed Glaucoma prevention medicine. 

 

I don't have a doctor, last time I went to one was for that skin thing I had and she is a Dermatologist,  and years before that to have a appendix removed. I don't go, they always find something wrong. I only go if something hurts.

I can't emphasize this enough.  Find a Dr and have a physical.  You're WAY overdue.

[Jeff Matthews]

23 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

I can't emphasize this enough.  Find a Dr and have a physical.  You're WAY overdue.

I'll second that.  It never hurts to pay $175 or so to get a bumper-to-bumper look-over with some lab work.  If labs show issues, then seek further evaluation.  For example, if cholesterol is quite high, consider getting a stress test where they hook you up to a bunch of electrodes and put you on a treadmill.

 

 

[CECAA850]

6 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said:

I'll second that.  It never hurts to pay $175 or so to get a bumper-to-bumper look-over with some lab work.  If labs show issues, then seek further evaluation.  For example, if cholesterol is quite high, consider getting a stress test where they hook you up to a bunch of electrodes and put you on a treadmill.

 

 

Blood work will show PSA, cholesterol, blood glucose, etc.  Hopefully all is well but if not, early diagnostics is way better than treating symptoms of a larger problem in the future.

[Jeff Matthews]

It's very clear that many on here have opinions of the article but didn't read it.  A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 20,000 "healthy" people with a median age of 74 years was conducted over 5 years.  Pay attention to the group.  "Healthy" is a key point here.  None of the members of the study had a history of heart disease.  Nothing suggests that people with a history of heart disease would be better-off giving up daily, low-dose aspirin.

 

Here is the actual summary of the study, itself:

 

Quote

 

RESULTS

A total of 19,114 persons with a median age of 74 years were enrolled, of whom 9525 were randomly assigned to receive aspirin and 9589 to receive placebo. A total of 56.4% of the participants were women, 8.7% were nonwhite, and 11.0% reported previous regular aspirin use. The trial was terminated at a median of 4.7 years of follow-up after a determination was made that there would be no benefit with continued aspirin use with regard to the primary end point. The rate of the composite of death, dementia, or persistent physical disability was 21.5 events per 1000 person-years in the aspirin group and 21.2 per 1000 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.92 to 1.11; P=0.79). The rate of adherence to the assigned intervention was 62.1% in the aspirin group and 64.1% in the placebo group in the final year of trial participation. Differences between the aspirin group and the placebo group were not substantial with regard to the secondary individual end points of death from any cause (12.7 events per 1000 person-years in the aspirin group and 11.1 events per 1000 person-years in the placebo group), dementia, or persistent physical disability. The rate of major hemorrhage was higher in the aspirin group than in the placebo group (3.8% vs. 2.8%; hazard ratio, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.18 to 1.62; P<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Aspirin use in healthy elderly persons did not prolong disability-free survival over a period of 5 years but led to a higher rate of major hemorrhage than placebo. (Funded by the National Institute on Aging and others; ASPREE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01038583.)

 

 

 

[CECAA850]

3 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said:

It's very clear that many on here have opinions of the article but didn't read it.  A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 20,000 "healthy" people with a median age of 74 years was conducted over 5 years.  Pay attention to the group.  "Healthy" is a key point here.  None of the members of the study had a history of heart disease.  Nothing suggests that people with a history of heart disease would be better-off giving up daily, low-dose aspirin.

 

Here is the actual summary of the study, itself:

 

 

 

I'm not aware of any Dr that recommends taking them if you're healthy.  They should have used candidates with a family history of cardiac problems.

[Jeff Matthews]

2 minutes ago, CECAA850 said:

They should have used candidates with a family history of cardiac problems.

They were not studying that fact.  I think it is conceded, for purposes of this study, that people with a history can benefit from it.  There are people, like dtel, who have no history but are thinking "It might be a good idea."  The article is aimed at people like him.  The conclusion is, "If you're healthy, the odds show that the risks outweigh the benefits."

 

P.S.  By "history," they don't mean, "it runs in the family."  They mean actual, personal experience.

[dtel]

24 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said:

P.S.  By "history," they don't mean, "it runs in the family."  They mean actual, personal experience.

 Well that's good because my dad had heart disease, got a heart transplant and a few years later died from cancer where the defibrillator was while he was waiting for a heart. 

 

I am trying to be the longest lived male in our family, I have 1 year and 4 days to go to outlive any of them. 

[Jeff Matthews]

9 minutes ago, dtel said:

I am trying to be the longest lived male in our family, I have 1 year and 4 days to go to outlive any of them. 

There you go!  Stay away from docs, except to know where you stand.  I've never had a doc not straight-up tell me how I can improve my condition without resort to drugs.  It's easy to make adjustments early - not so when you allow damage to get too far.  Too bad I can't afford to get screened for everything known to man, but I do value the basic tests.  I am at the age where colonoscopies are recommended.  I don't know about that...  My friend's brother had one a while back and bled-out a lot, having to go to the hospital.  He had another recently and got some kind of antibiotic-resistant infection that has taken a bit of a toll on him over the last 2 months.