Changes to aspirin recommendations for those with diabetes

Sat, 19 Jun 2010
A change in levels of aspirin use by diabetics has been recommended by experts who have assessed nine separate studies into the benefits or otherwise of treating the metabolic condition with aspirin. They found it was increasingly necessary to improve the balance between the potential medical advantages of taking aspirin with the risks of side effects, such as stomach bleeding.

The recommendation is now that low-dose aspirin therapy as a way of preventing heart attacks should be used more conservatively, and that men under 50 and women under 60 who have diabetes but no other major risk factors, should probably not use aspirin to treat the condition.

The findings are supported by a panel of experts and endorsed by the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology Foundation .

Craig Williams, one of the experts on the review panel, said "The larger theme here is that use of low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks in people who have not already experienced one is probably not as efficacious as we used to believe it was…In the case of young adults with diabetes but no other significant risk factors, it's not clear that the benefits are adequate to merit use of aspirin."

Aspirin, which acts as an anti-coagulant, and has been used to relieve acute pain and also by people experiencing a heart attack, and has also been thought to have value for those who have risk factors for heart disease, such as a family history of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure or smoking .

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