Is your daily aspirin doing more harm than good?

For decades, a daily dose of aspirin has been promoted for its health benefits, particularly in helping to lower the risk of stroke and first heart attack risk in older adults.

However, new research from Monash University suggests this long standing practice could be doing more harm than good. 

Confirming findings first published in 2018, researchers discovered that healthy older adults who took a low-dose aspirin daily faced a higher risk of a major haemorrhage, without gaining any significant cardiovascular benefit.

Published in the European Heart Journal, the latest study tracked 15,668 Australian and American adults aged 70 years or over.

All participants had no history of cardiovascular disease events, dementia, or significant physical disability when they joined the original ASPREE clinical trial. Following the conclusion of the trial, researchers followed up with participants as part of the ASPREE-eXTension study.

First author Professor Rory Wolfe, a principal investigator of the ASPREE-XT study from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said the findings showed no evidence that daily aspirin prevented cardiovascular events.

However, participants who received aspirin daily faced an increased major haemorrhage risk compared to those who were given a placebo.

“Surprising us, during the post-trial phase the participants who initially had been randomised to aspirin experienced a 17 per cent increase in major adverse cardiovascular events compared to those initially randomised to placebo,” Professor Wolfe said.

“The overall findings from the original trial ​suggested that the long-term use of aspirin may not only fail ‌to provide cardiovascular protection in healthy older adults but also significantly increase the risk of hazardous bleeding complications. Our new results confirm those insights.

“Our findings suggest that individuals taking aspirin for possible primary prevention of cardiovascular events should discuss with their doctors possibly stopping the drug, noting that this advice would not apply to anyone taking aspirin who had already experienced a cardiovascular event and was taking it to prevent recurrent events.”

While the latest findings may prompt some to reconsider their daily aspirin routine, co-author Dr Andrew Tonkin, from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said some individuals may still benefit from taking aspirin to help prevent cardiovascular disease.

However, he stressed the importance of discussing the potential risks and benefits with a GP before making any decisions.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your personal health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalised health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.