Regular Use of Aspirin Increases Risk of Crohn's Disease by 5 Times, Study Finds

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2010) — People who take aspirin regularly for a year or more may be at an increased risk of developing Crohn's disease, according to a new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Led by Dr Andrew Hart of UEA's School of Medicine, the research was presented for the first time at the Digestive Disease Week conference in New Orleans.
Crohn's disease is a serious condition affecting 60,000 people in the UK and 500,000 people in the US. It is characterized by inflammation and swelling of any part of the digestive system. This can lead to debilitating symptoms and requires patients to take life-long medication. Some patients need surgery and some sufferers have an increased risk of bowel cancer.

Though there are likely to be many causes of the disease, previous work on tissue samples has shown that aspirin can have a harmful effect on the bowel. To investigate this potential link further, the UEA team followed 200,000 volunteers aged 30-74 in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Italy. The volunteers had been recruited for the EPIC study (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) between 1993 and 1997.

The volunteers were all initially well, but by 2004 a small number had developed Crohn's disease. When looking for differences in aspirin use between those who did and did not develop the disease, the researchers discovered that those taking aspirin regularly for a year or more were around five times more likely to develop Crohn's disease.


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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100503192451.htm

[pnwmom]

1. The article doesn't mention whether the relationship is dose-dependent.

Some people take a baby aspirin every day or two as a blood thinner; some take much larger amounts for other purposes.

[DCBob]

2. We should all be extremely cautious about taking drugs, any drugs, long term..

even OTC "safe" drugs.

[eShirl]

4. +1

[elocs]

3. Crohn's disease/stroke, Crohn's disease/stroke. Tough choice.

It just goes to show it's always something.

[dmallind]

5. Once again the truth behind scary "risk" numbers is important

Even taking all this at face value and assume 100% causation it means

a) Stop taking aspirin - an absolutely proven factor in reducing heart attacks and have a 99.84% chance of avoiding Crohn's (inverse ratio of 500K in US population)

b) Take aspirin and have a 99.22% chance of avoiding Crohn's (inverse of ratio X 5)



Now yes it doesn't work out QUITE like that because presumably some of those 500K are Aspirin takers, but without knowing the number it's as close as I can get and makes the point I hope.

Every time I see supposedly educated people like clinical researchers and doctors whining about increased risks from factor X that means dramatic changes to their patients (making a generic point here not specific) I laugh whenever they fail to tell me what the risk *IS*. This article is rare in that at least it allows a rough calculation, but it still doesn't clearly state the risk with and without aspirin as it should to allow rational decisions.

I see it all the time as a fat guy....., Obesity makes you 100% more likely to get X! Obesity makes you 200% more likely to get Y!! Obesity makes you 300% more likely to get Z!!!! You must eat like a rabbit and spend hours jogging every day to avoid this or DIE!!

And of course the response is always "And buying three Megamillions tickets increases my chance of winning the jackpot by 300%. Should I quit my job today assuming I will win then?".

Increases in risk are meaningless without knowing the base level of risk. When anybody comes up with "obesity and obesity alone changes your risk of X from 0.001% to 65%" and X is scary enough then I might care (unlikely, since the impact of obesity on longevity is in almost all scenarios trivial). Until then it's half-baked scaremongering.

[silverweb]

6. On the other hand...

Aspirin has also been noted to protect against colon cancer, as well as stroke and heart attack.

Quite a favorable trade-off, if you ask me: probable protection against three deadly illnesses in exchange for a possible increase in risk for a non-lethal illness.

[LeftishBrit]

7. I would suggest an alternative possibility

Crohns is often not diagnosed immediately; indeed there can be quite a few years between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis. (Been there, done that!) Sometimes flare-ups are manifested as much in fever and general unwellness, which in the undiagnosed can often be mistaken for 'flu and similar problems. Also, Crohns in some people leads to arthritis and similar problems.

Therefore, it seems quite possible to me that rather than aspirin *causing* Crohns, people with incipient Crohns are more likely to have symptoms for which they then take aspirin. Thus, people who are diagnosed with Crohns are more likely than others to have taken aspirin frequently.

Of course, aspirin like any drug needs to be handled with care and respect (a certain number of people die each year as a result of taking too much aspirin, or having abnormal reactions to it) - but I am not sure that a direct link to Crohns has been proved

[mopinko]

8. perhaps what is happening is this-

developing case of chron's causes pain, subject takes aspirin, later dx'd with chron's. the article doesn't mention this as a possible factor, but perhaps the actual study does.