The properties of aspirin have long been recognised in preventing stroke and heart attack, but the worlds most humble drug could prove to be a secret weapon against one of the worst ravages of old age. A $50 million medical trial funded by the United States‐based National Institutes of Health is under way in Australia to determine whether this little white pill, used for everything from headaches to hangovers, could also delay the onset of dementia, and prevent certain types of cancers as well as deafness and blindness. The trial, ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE), is a joint project between Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and the Berman Centre for Outcomes and Clinical Research, in Minneapolis, and has recently recruited its 19,000th participant , making it the largest medical trial conducted on these shores. The study has grown from its initial aim of studying the possible preventive effects of aspirin in the development of heart attacks and stroke, to determining whether aspirin can boost an elderly persons disability‐free years, keeping them active and out of nursing homes for longer. Increasingly with the elderly, the important issue is how to keep them as healthy as can be, Professor John McNeil, the studys chief investigator in Australia, says. This has become a priority for medicine. Aspirins miracle properties revolve around its ability to stop blood platelets clumping together, reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. But the active ingredient salicin, originally derived from the willow tree and used in Hippocratess time, also has an anti‐inflammatory effect. This could be beneficial in the elderly who may have low‐grade inflammation in areas of the body such as the eyes, ears, muscles and brain, possibly triggering deafness, blindness and dementia. There is a hypothesis that this low‐grade inflammation may be damaging, so one of the things we are looking at is wheth
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:03:19 +0000
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