Taking low-dose aspirin pill a day could help prevent heart disease and colon cancer, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends.
The new recommendation urges individuals in their 50s with risk factors of heart disease such as high blood pressure, family history of heart attack or stroke, high cholesterol levels and history of smoking, to pop a low-dose aspirin every day to cut the risk of heart disease and colon cancer, which are considered as the two leading causes of death in the United States.
Individuals in their 60s, who are at a higher risk of cardiovascular problem, could also take the drug; however, the benefit is smaller compared to those who are younger. The task force have not acquired ample related evidence to determine the effects of aspirin use in people younger than 50 years old and older than 69.
The agency has tightened up the intake of low-dose aspirin to individuals at higher risk of heart problems between the 50 years old and 69 years old, unlike the previous recommendations in 2009 that covers a broader patient population.
In the past, the task force recommended aspirin use for men aged 45 to 79 years old and women aged 55 to 70 years old, whose risk of heart disease and related cardiovascular disease were greater than their risks of complications brought about by aspirin such as bleeding.
They reviewed five additional studies of aspirin as a drug used in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.
"In the case of aspirin, we have new evidence from two main areas," said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo from the University of California, San Francisco.
Domingo added that the first area deals with the prevention of the emergence and progression of colorectal cancer. The second area tackles the harms linked to aspirin use.
The recommendation, however, had some accompanying caveats. The use of aspirin, even in low-dose, increases gastrointestinal and/or extracranial bleeding by 58 percent.
Since aspirin can cause bleeding in the stomach and brain, this recommendation doesn't apply to people with bleeding disorders.
"The risk of bleeding rises with age, so people who are in their 60s are more likely to bleed, on average, than people in their 50s," Bibbins-Domingo said.
The typical low-dose aspirin is 81 milligrams.
The recommendation was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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