This week, a headline-making study in the New England Journal of Medicine sought to cast doubts on long-established science that says daily aspirin can be a broadly-effective anti-aging tonic. I’m writing this response because I think that this new, small study has to be viewed in the context of many larger studies over many decades that together make a solid case for aspirin’s benefits.
Aspirin has two kinds of effects: First, aspirin thins the blood, reduce clotting, which lowers the risk of most kinds of heart attacks and stroke (ischemic) while raising the risk of bleeding ulcers and hemorrhagic stroke.
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