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Aspirin and Asthma: Study

by Medindia Content Team on Jan 16 2007 1:10 PM

Dr. Tobias Kurth, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and associates examining data from the Physicians' Health Study have found that low doses of Aspirin may reduce the risk of 'new-onset' asthma in adults by 22%.

The study also shows that Aspirin may not be helpful in treating symptoms - It may, of course, cause acute breathing difficulties among individuals with 'aspirin-intolerant asthma.'

Researchers reported their findings in Monday's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

The study involved more than 22,000 healthy men randomized to aspirin or placebo, aged 40 to 84 years. The subjects, free of asthma at baseline in 1982, were randomly assigned to a single 325-mg tablet of aspirin or placebo on alternate days, for an average of 4.9 years.

The investigations showed that the reduction in new diagnoses of asthma was greater among those who had never smoked and among those who were older than 45.9 years at baseline.

To conclude, while, the researchers propose that aspirin may decrease the onset of asthma in adults, they absolutely do not imply that aspirin improves symptoms in patients with asthma. The drug also carries risks of side-effects such as stomach bleeding.



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