Word: aspirins
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MEDICINE Another use for aspirin: preventing colon cancer...
Some prostaglandins promote inflammation, fever and pain by sensitizing nerves to other chemicals released from injured cells. Aspirin's most familiar benefits come from interfering with these noisome processes. However, prostaglandins are also responsible for stimulating the production of the stomach's protective lining of mucus, which explains why too much aspirin can cause gastric distress and bleeding. Aspirin's ability to prevent strokes and heart attacks stems from its disruption of a prostaglandin that promotes blood clotting. As for colon-cancer prevention, it is possible that aspirin inhibits substances that play a role in cell proliferation. At least...
...Aspirin's list of unexpected benefits may not end with cancer. There is at least some evidence that it may be useful in preventing gum disease, gallstones, cataracts, miscarriages and even in treating viral diseases. Researchers in several fields eagerly await the results of the Women's Health Study, an ambitious trial involving 40,000 women, half of whom will be randomly assigned to take low doses of aspirin every other day for at least five years. Originally designed to see if aspirin can prevent heart disease in women as it does in men, the study will also look...
Until the results are in, doctors are not recommending that anyone go out and gulp aspirin for good health. The drug can have unpleasant and even dangerous side effects, including ringing in the ears and blurred vision, as well as stomach bleeding. A more serious problem is hemorrhagic stroke, caused not by a clot blocking the brain's blood vessels but by vessels that rupture. Moreover, prostaglandins appear to work in opposing pairs. The ones that promote clot formation, for example, are countered by partners that do the opposite. Too much aspirin can therefore cause the very problems that lower...
Even if follow-up studies show that aspirin really does protect against cancer, doctors warn that it will never be a substitute for exercise, a low- fat, high-fiber diet or not smoking. Too many heart-disease patients have latched on to aspirin as a panacea and as an excuse to avoid changing lethal habits. The latest findings will probably, alas, tempt others to do the same...