Study shows daily aspirin intake can lead to blindness

[Celebration]

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-daily-aspirin-intake.html

Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in Americans over the age of 60 and affects millions of Americans. It is an age related disease that destroys the central vision by killing cells in the macula. Macular degeneration comes in two forms known as dry and wet. Dry macular degeneration is more common and less severe while wet macular degeneration is the more severe.

Researchers, led by Dr. Paulus de Jong from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical center, looked at medical information on some 4,700 adults over the age of 65. Of those patients, 839 were taking aspirin on a daily basis. The researchers discovered that out of those 839, 36 suffered from an advanced form of macular degeneration known as wet macular degeneration. This works out to about four out of every 100 patients on daily aspirin.

When they looked at patients that were not taking aspirin on a daily basis, the number dropped to only two out of every 100 diagnosed with wet macular degeneration. The researchers learned that the aspirin connection seems to only relate to the increased risk to wet macular degeneration and not to the dry form of the disease.

This study does not show that aspirin causes the vision loss but that it may somehow exacerbate the disease. The researchers warn that while cautioning patients on the risk to visual health when taking daily aspirin is advisable, the risk does not outweigh the cardiovascular benefits in patients with cardiovascular disease.

[Zoigal]

1. I take an aspirin a day and also have dry macular degeneration. It doesn't appear to

be getting worse and i am almost eighty three. Have had
cataract surgery on both eyes and don't have to wear glasses even
for reading. Wore them for years before i had surgery....z

[postulater]

2. Another reason not to take it.

[lbrtbell]

8. Aspirin did permanent damage to my stomach

And I only took it for 6 months, without exceeding the recommended dose.

[Kennah]

3. Masturbation achieves the same thing and without the ill effects

[ZombieHorde]

4. Really? Masturbation and aspirin give me two very different results. nt

[Kennah]

5. Long term they both produce blindness

[gateley]

6. Maybe, but no hairy palms from aspirin. nt

[Kennah]

11. One can always shave

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. ....

[SheilaT]

7. So now my question is, exactly what were those

people taking aspirin for on a daily basis? Maybe the correlation is to that, rather than the aspirin itself.

Unfortunately, the kind of study that might settle this, might be unethical: assigning people randomly to take aspirin daily, or not take it, and see which group gets more macular degeneration. Oh, wait, that's been done, hasn't it, with the recommendation that certain people take aspirin daily to reduce the chance of heart attack. Hmmmm.

[intaglio]

9. Unrecc'ed. Scaremongering

Headline is NOT supported by the article quoted

This is a meta-study looking at medical records and only indicates a possibility and does not exclude other factors. For example those who need to take aspirin daily for heart and circulation problems might be more vulnerable to Wet Macular Degeneration. The study also does not indicate how the those taking aspirin daily were identified, if it was only on prescription records then there is a good chance some of the "not taking aspirin daily" group were actually taking aspirin and there is an excellent chance that members of the "taking aspirin" group were skipping their doses.

[Celebration]

10. the headline should have said "may"

Most of them do. Must have been a new headline writer.