An aspirin a day

Dr Lesley Hickin explains the benefits and dangers of this age-old drug

The history of aspirin reaches back to the fifth century BC, when Hippocrates used a bitter powder extracted from willow bark to ease pain and reduce fever. Today's researchers are developing new uses for this historically old drug and are constantly attempting to modify its chemical structure so that more people can benefit from its healing and preventative properties.

What's it used for?
The interest in aspirin comes from understanding the way it works and its variety of effects. In small doses it interferes with blood clotting; in medium doses it reduces fever and relieves minor aches and pains; and in high dosage it combats pain and inflammation in severe disease such as rheumatoid arthritis.

A large number of studies have shown that aspirin is effective not only in preventing disease of blood vessels but also in substantially reducing the risk of death in a person having a severe attack of angina or a heart attack.

Other fields in which it promises to be useful are migraine, gum disease, cataracts and pre-eclampsia (dangerously high blood pressure in pregnancy). Some women with recurrent miscarriages are treated with a combination of aspirin and an anti-coagulant called heparin. There is some evidence that aspirin may help in preventing blood clots in the veins on long-haul plane journeys, though this is not as clear cut as the evidence about heart disease.

For this reason many adults who are at high risk of developing heart disease now take a small dose of aspirin daily, 75mg being the correct dose.

High risk for heart disease
If you have any of the following conditions you need to ask your doctor about the benefits of taking a small dose of aspirin each day:

• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Previous heart attacks, or other arterial diseases such as angina, stroke, transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs, mini strokes), peripheral vascular disease
• High cholesterol levels for which you are receiving drug treatment