| ■ Regular Aspirin Use Against Heart Attack May Only Work for Men | 2007.10.22 |
| An aspirin a day to protect against heart attack may only work for men, say Canadian researchers who reviewed data from 23 international studies involving more than 113,000 people. The University of British Columbia team found that regular aspirin use reduced heart attack risk by 25 percent in men, but had almost no effect on women, the Toronto Star reported. The findings were published online Wednesday in the journal BMC Medicine. "For people without risk factors who haven't had heart attacks in the past ... Aspirin in women is not very effective. In fact, it's not effective," said study co-author Dr. Don Sin, an assistant professor of medicine. "Whereas it seems to be quite effective in preventing heart attacks in men." The disparity between men and women may due to gender-related physiological differences, suggested Dr. Peter Liu, head of circulatory research at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Star reported. |