THE authors of a recent study found that healthy older adults who took a daily, low dose of aspirin were at higher risk of receiving a diagnosis of advanced cancers and dying from cancer than those who took a placebo.
The findings raise the possibility that taking aspirin every day may make cancers worse once they have developed in this age group.
In recent years, there have been high hopes that taking a daily, low dose of aspirin might help protect older people from dementia, cognitive decline, and cancer.
Doctors widely prescribe daily aspirin to people at high risk of cardiovascular problems.
In addition, some clinical trials involving mostly middle-aged adults have found that aspirin may reduce the risk of developing cancer, especially colorectal cancer.
However, until recently, evidence for the drug’s use as a preventive treatment in otherwise healthy older people has been lacking.
Researchers carried out the recent study.
They analyzed results from the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial, which included 19,114 individuals living in Australia and the United States. None of the participants had cardiovascular disease, dementia, or physical disability at the start of the study.
IMMUNE AGING AND HOW TO COMBAT IT
With age, the human immune system becomes less effective at tackling infections and less responsive to vaccinations. At the same time, the aging immune system is associated with chronic inflammation, which increases the risk of almost all conditions linked to old age.
The good news is that exercising and adopting the right diet may help a person maintain healthy immunity into older age.
Chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest primate relatives, live for only 10–15 years in the wild once they have reached maturity. After the human evolutionary lineage split from theirs, our ancestors’ life expectancydoubled over the next 5 million years.
Scientists believe that it remained relatively stable into the 18th century. In the 250 years between then and now, however, life expectancy more than doubled again due to improvements in sanitation and healthcare.
We live in a time of high average life expectancies. However, our long evolutionary history has adapted us for different lifestyles (and even life expectancies), and these have changed drastically. After an initial infection or injury, younger people’s immune systems switch to an anti-inflammatory response.
