With the constant media focus on H1N1, an unintended consequence is that lots of other important heath news has been over-looked, information that will actually impact way more people in a much more significant fashion than H1N1 will.
Tae for example, a recent study about ASA in the journal, Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin.
Despite all the contradictory evidence out there about whether for an average-risk person it’s worth taking ASA or not, millions of people are doing exactly because some experts still tout it loudly (for example, apparently Dr Oz says it’s a good thing to do and hey, if an expert on Oprah promotes it, it must be the right way to go), and besides, ASA is so prevalent, most people figure, then it must be safe, especially in the small amounts that people usually use for heart and stroke prevention.
But according to this study, for anyone who isn’t at high-risk for a heart attack or stroke, ASA’s heart-prevention effect is 1) not that strong, and 2) is pretty much balanced out but ASA’s well-known but oft-ignored dangerous side effect of leading to more bleeding (from the gut, into the brain, elsewhere).
This even applies, say these researchers, to people who have diabetes and high blood pressure, two risk factors that usually lead doctors to advise that patient to use ASA.
Bottom line: everything – even old, over-the-counter drugs, even “natural” products – have potential downsides, and before starting a course of those things, always balance that against the touted benefits.
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