Daily Aspirin Does More Harm Than Good

—Drugs Are Not Preventive Medicine—

by Heidi Stevenson

7 September 2009

In yet another example of modern medicine's misbegotten belief in giving pharmaceuticals to healthy people, a new study shows that taking aspirin is not only useless in preventing cardiovascular disease, it also increases bleeding disorders. In other words, it does more harm than good.

The Study

The study, named "Aspirin for Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis" (AAA) was placebo controlled, randomized, and blinded.

AAA, done in Scotland and sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Executive, and Bayer Healthcare, considered 28,980 subjects. Of those, 3,350 qualified and agreed to take part. The average (mean) length of enrollment was 8.2 years and the average age ranged from 50 to 80. 71% were women. They were divided into two equally sized groups of 1,675. One group took a 100 mg. enterically-coated aspirin tablet each day, while the other took an indistinguishable placebo.

All the subjects had low ankle brachial pressure indicator (ABI) readings. ABI is the arterial blood pressure ratio between the ankle and arm readings. A low ratio is indicative of vascular occlusion. Patients with any other indicator of heart disease or previous heart disease were not included. Reasons for exclusion included:

• Prior use of either aspirin or warfarin (a prescription blood thinner)
• Severe indigestion
• History of myocardial infaction (heart attack), stroke, angina, or peripheral arterial disease
• Chronic liver or kidney disease
• Chemotherapy
• Contraindications for aspirin use
• Abnormally low or high packed cell volume (ratio of red blood cells to blood volume)

Two possible endpoints existed. The primary endpoint was a coronary event, either fatal or nonfatal, stroke, or revascularization, which is surgical treatment to increase blood supply to an organ or area of the body. Secondary endpoints were a composite of vascular events that indicated the likelihood of a primary endpoint, intermittent claudication, or mortality from any cause.

AAA Results

No statistical difference in the primary endpoint, that is, development of significant heart disease symptoms, was found between the aspirin and placebo groups. There was also no significant difference in the secondary composite endpoint.

The only difference between the two groups was in hospital admissions for major bleeding. It was 1.2% in the placebo group and 2.0% in the aspirin group. Drug studies that show a benefit like this will usually blare the results from the rooftops, but with a twist. They'll compare 1.2% with 2.0% and claim a 60% benefit with use of their drug. (1.2 divided by 2.0 equals .6, which is 60%)

Primary endpoint (coronary event)
Aspirin	n=181	10.8%
Placebo	n=176	10.5%
Secondary endpoint (composite)
Aspirin	n=288	17.2%
Placebo	n=290	17.3%
Major bleeding
Aspirin	n=34	2.0%
Placebo	n=20	1.2%

As with statins, someone who doesn't already have heart disease can gain no benefit.

Another Indicator of the Medical Paradigm Flaw

The concept of using a substance foreign to the body to prevent disease is a fatal flaw in the medical paradigm. Aspirin is not normally found in the human body. It is a chemical known to have many effects. The most well-known beneficial effect is relief of pain. In Big Pharma's zeal for increasing profits by finding other uses for existing drugs, aspirin has been successfully pushed as a heart disease preventative, based on its effect of thinning the blood—but little concern has been given to the fact that this same effect can cause bleeding.

Other known effects of aspirin are abnormal liver function, allergic reactions, anorexia, difficulty breathing, abnormally low white blood cell count, and seizures, among many others.

Drugs are not food. They are not health promoters. They are chemicals that are not natural to the body and have a wide range of effects. Some of these effects may be desirable in some cases. Aspirin's ability to ease pain is a fine example. However, routine use of chemicals in an effort to prevent disease completely ignores the real issue: The underlying problem that leads to a disease is what needs to be addressed.

Attempting to prevent diseases by ingesting chemicals that have no place in human metabolism is bound to result in failure. It's an example of the hubris of a medical system that's based on the paradigm of profit.