Saturday 30 May 2009

Another Cure-All Bites The Dust.

So now we know. According to research reported by the media yesterday, whilst a daily dodse of Aspirin may well be beneficial to those who have already suffered heart attacks or strokes, there is no evidence that it is beneficial to those who have not and, as has been well known for years, Aspirin can, in some cases, damage the lining of the stomach and cause internal bleeding.

It now turns out then, that Aspirin is not the universal cure-all that it has been portrayed as for years, in terms of clotting prevention. Perhaps this should be a warning to both the medical profession and the media in terms of their eternal attempts to portray various drugs as 'magic bullets' that can universally prevent medical conditions occurring. This is particularly important at the moment when there are attempts to medicate all those over fifty five with blood pressure pills and we are being sold the idea of daily doses of vitamin D as a cancer prevention. Skepticism is the best policy in dealing with all these claims.

I wonder if anyone will be compensated for stomach bleeds caused by the prescribing of Aspirin to the healthy ?. Somehow I doubt it.

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