A Daily Dose of Aspirin: Helpful or Harmful to Maintain Good Health?

by | Oct 27, 2009 | Health | 0 comments

John Asks:

Many doctors routinely recommend a daily dose of baby aspirin when their patients reach 50 years of age. What about possible liver damage? What about those of us who are already leading an active healthy lifestyle? Could it be more of a detriment than a benefit? What’s the scoop?

Reply from Aliesa George and Centerworks.com

All the things we have to consider to maintain our good health. Since, personally, I’m not 50 just yet, I didn’t realize that a daily dose of aspirin was on my list of things to consider taking. I hate taking pills, but do realize the benefits of modern medicine are valuable and helpful when appropriate and necessary to maintain my good health.  So it boils down to – Is a daily dose of aspirin safe and necessary for me?

What a great question! And I suspect that every doctor and/or health professional you ask this question to, may have a different reply. As I am NOT a doctor – I can make no recommendations on this subject, but can only suggest that you consult with your primary care physician to get the best plan of action for your body and health.

I did however do a bit of delving into the subject to see what I could discover:

First, I zipped an email off to my favorite medical resource, Earl George M.D. (my father) As a general practice physician for more than 45 years, his insights have always been helpful to me when I have client questions or conditions to be careful with during exercise.

Here Is Dr. Earl George’s Insight On The Subject Of A Daily Dose of Baby Aspirin:

“This recommendation is based on a study done on physicians several years ago, half of whom took baby aspirin and half of whom didn’t. The results over several years was a significant decrease in the number and severity of heart attacks in the aspirin group. The theory here is that it makes the platelets just slightly less sticky, so clots are a little harder to form, and are not as aggressive when they do form. Aspirin isn’t a problem with liver damage, Tylenol is. Aspirin is a problem with GI bleeding in particular, The rationale of the low dose is that the benefit to risk ratio is skewed way in the patient’s favor.

As for healthy lifestyles, the aspirin benefit is statistical and as such doesn’t have much to do with lifestyle.”

Then I went surfing the web to see what I could find, and was surprised at the high number of results that popped up on this topic! You could spend months reading all the posts online on this subject.

A Few Articles on Aspirin and Health

Here’s a good article from the Mayo Clinic – Daily aspirin therapy: Understand the benefits and risks

And another one to consider reading on the Bio-Medicine.org site is – Low-dose Aspirin Benefits Both Sexes

Since we are each unique individuals with different risk factors, genetics, and medical history. The bottom line answer on this topic would be – CONSULT WITH YOUR PHYSICIAN TO DETERMINE IF A DAILY DOSE OF ASPIRIN IS APPROPRIATE FOR YOU.

Aliesa George: Over the past three decades, Aliesa George has helped assist people with their personal health journeys by sharing, teaching, and developing Pilates, Foot Fitness, and other Mind-Body programs.

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