For years I was a strong believer in Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). While I still think it’s a wonder drug, more recently I’ve discovered Ibuprofen. It helped me through a worrisome knee injury, and since I was taking it so regularly, I started calling it Vitamin I.
This week there were reports of a study on anti-inflammatories such as Aspirin and ibuprofen. Taken regularly, it seems these drugs reduce the chance of developing breast cancer. The researchers concluded that inflammation is closely related to the development of cancer which, they believe, explains why women who regularly took these medications experienced a lower rate of breast cancer. This study involved over 2 million women – a huge sample size, which makes the results quite reliable.
Aspirin and ibuprofen belong to the group of drugs called NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The problem with NSAIDs is they are hard on the stomach. So much so, they’ve been known to cause bleeding ulcers. They can also hinder blood clotting, which can cause all kinds of bleeding problems.
So, the question is, what do we do now? Go back to an aspirin a day – or an ibuprofen a day?
