Using Aspirin Every Day May Cause Anemia in Seniors

A new study suggests regular aspirin use in older adults may pose a serious risk of anemia, adding to existing research that challenges the long-established recommendation to use aspirin as a preventative therapy for dangerous cardiac events. The results come just a year after a national independent task force updated formal recommendations in April 2022 cautioning those over the age of 60 against beginning a daily aspirin regimen. For decades, aspirin has been used like a vitamin by a sizable portion of America’s aging population. Research as far back as the 1950s showed a daily low dose of the anti-inflammatory medication could help prevent diseases like heart attacks and stroke. Eventually, the benefits of the routine became common knowledge, and older adults added the over-the-counter medication to their pillboxes without any sort of formal physician recommendation. In 2021, 45% of Americans over the age of 75 reported taking daily low doses of aspirin. Its health benefits and low cost have made aspirin the most widely used medication in the world. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Read more: Should You Take Aspirin Every Day? Here’s What the Science Says However, those benefits were mostly observed in studies of relatively young cohorts. In recent years, research has focused on the older populations most likely to use aspirin regularly, and has found that a daily aspirin regimen has been linked to more major bleeding events, like aneurysms, often ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Aging healthscienceclimate Source Type: news