March 2005

Older women benefit from low-dose aspirin

Many women, especially those 65 and older, may benefit from taking low-dose aspirin every other day to prevent stroke, according to a 10-year randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

The Women’s Health Study, supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute, will be published in the March 31 issue of the [ITAL]New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers say, however, that women should weigh the risk and benefits of taking aspirin and consult their doctors. And they should adopt the well-proven approaches to reduce the risk of heart disease: eating for heart health; getting regular physical activity; maintaining a healthy weight; not smoking and controlling high cholesterol high blood pressure and diabetes.

The study found that aspirin did not prevent first heart attacks of death from cardiovascular causes in women. Low-dose aspirin lowered the incidence of a first major cardiovascular event by 9 percent, which was deemed not statistically significant.

Stroke was 17 percent lower in the aspirin group, however — a statistically significant different.

The study also explored the effects of taking vitamin E (600 IU every other day). These findings, presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting, along with the aspirin study, showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit or increased risk from taking the supplement.

Source: National Institutes of Health, http://www.nih.gov/news

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