Daily aspirin doesn’t prevent deaths

In healthy people aged 70 or over, taking a daily low-dose aspirin doesn’t help dementia or persistent physical disability and it increases the risk of bleeding.

In a recent trial, 19,114 healthy people aged 70 years or older living in Australia or the United States received daily aspirin or a placebo. They were all free from heart and brain disease.

The study was stopped after just four-and-a-half years after analysis found no benefit from aspirin. And major haemorrhage was significantly more frequent in people on daily aspirin than in those receiving placebo.

The new findings support the recent recommendation from The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence not to routinely prescribe aspirin for the prevention of heart disease. “This provides the most reliable evidence on the balance of risk and benefit of starting aspirin after 70 in healthy people,” said Peter Rothwell, head of the Centre for the Prevention of Stroke and Dementia at the University of Oxford.

Some people believe that acne cannot be helped by medical treatment. This isn’t true. Treatments usually work well if used correctly.