Latest aspirin advice from feds puts millions in jeopardy
They’re the most powerful group of doctors that most people have never heard of – and they may have accidentally sent millions of Americans on a collision course with disaster.
I’m talking about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and they regularly hand out health advice to the government and doctors across the country.
And just a few days ago they sent the media into a frenzy.
The USPSTF released a report you may have heard of – it supposedly claimed that taking a daily aspirin would help you prevent heart attacks, strokes, and even cancer.
But when you see what this report really said – and what it didn’t – you just may be tossing your aspirin bottle in the trash for good.
It doesn’t matter how many negative studies come out – or how many people get hurt or die.
The mainstream medical community and the media have a love affair with aspirin that they just can’t seem to quit.
So I guess I wasn’t too surprised when the USPSTF recommendations came out last week, and they touched off a firestorm in the press.
Even the Washington Post ran a headline claiming that this “expert panel” said that all you have to do is “pop a daily aspirin to help prevent heart attacks, stroke and colon cancer.”
Only that’s not really what the USPSTF said at all – not by a longshot.
And their recommendations had plenty of warnings on aspirin that the media never bothered to write about. Let’s start with two big myths about what was actually in this report.
Myth #1: You should take aspirin to reduce your heart attack and stroke risk
Actually, this recommendation should be reworded to read that millions of Americans who are now taking aspirin should stop immediately!
If you’re under 50 or over 59, the USPSTF couldn’t find any benefit whatsoever to taking a daily aspirin. And if you’re over 70, all bets are off. The USPSTF warns that you’re actually at “significant” risk of a major bleed or hemorrhage – maybe even a stroke.
Looks like the press missed that little tidbit, huh?
But that’s hardly a new finding. Years ago, a look at nine big trials on taking aspirin to prevent heart disease found that twice as many people will suffer a bleed as will benefit.
That’s why even the FDA two years ago refused to let Bayer carry language on its bottles claiming aspirin can prevent heart attacks in people without heart disease.
Myth #2: Taking aspirin will lower your risk of colon cancer
The idea that aspirin can keep you from getting cancer is some of the biggest hogwash I’ve ever seen. The USPSTF actually found that you have to pop an aspirin a day for up to 20 years for any benefit to appear.
With all the bleeding risks that come with aspirin, that’s like playing Russian roulette every day for two decades straight. No thanks!
The fact that you can buy aspirin everywhere – and practically in gallon tubs – doesn’t mean that it’s safe. It doesn’t mean that you should be taking it, that you won’t hemorrhage, perhaps fatally, or that the science is settled where aspirin, heart disease and cancer are concerned.
And if you read the fine print in this USPTSF report, you’ll find that’s exactly what this group is actually saying.
Sources:
“Pop a daily aspirin to help prevent heart attacks, stroke and colon cancer, expert panel says” Lena H. Sun, April 11, 2016, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com
