Aspirin really deserves the name 'wonder drug'

Of all the medicines to which people attach the name "wonder drug", aspirin surely deserves it. The news that a daily dose of aspirin can reduce the risk of certain cancers and prevent cancer spreading is only the latest in a long series of discoveries showing the drug's extraordinary potential.

Aspirin is a real wonder drug: its usefulness (as willow-bark extract, for fever and pain) was known to the ancients; it seems to have myriad benefits; and yet its mechanisms remain mysterious. When it was first synthesised, as acetylsalicylic acid, in the 1850s, it was used as to relieve the pains of "rheumatism", but no one had any idea how it worked.

It wasn't until the late 20th century that doctors started to give it to patients as a preventative against heart disease. Researchers started to work out a theory of heart disease that involved some sort of inflammation process and something called C-reactive protein. C-reactive protein is a marker for inflammation: raised levels of it in the blood indicate an inflammatory process. It is also known that the base-line plasma concentration of C-reactive protein predicts the risk of future heart attack and stroke. Taking aspirin reduces CRP levels, and so may also reduce the risk of future heart problems.

I have been taking a daily 75mg or "baby" aspirin for about 18 months now. (I'm 42.) I have a family history of cardiovascular disease and I decided that I might get some benefit and that this would outweigh the potential risks. I discussed it with my GP, who said: "Go ahead." I know some readers will say I'm mad to be taking a powerful medicine every day when I can't be sure that it's doing me any good, and it may actually be harming me. Lots of people take supplements and vitamins, and the evidence for those is very thin indeed. I try to minimise the risks: I take it after food to try to protect the stomach lining. At least there's evidence of aspirin's good effect, and today that evidence got a bit more persuasive.