In a world in which cancer appears to be so common and people’s lives are being put to the test at different ages, it is good news when we find out that there is an actual way to decrease its chances of appearing and tearing people apart. Aspirin, Aleve, Motrin and other types of painkillers have been discovered to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by up to 45 percent. Almost 50 percent!
Yes, a new study has concluded that people who took in between 75 to 150 milligrams of aspirin every day, for 5 consecutive years, have reduced their chances to contract colorectal cancer by 27% compared to those who did not. And there are some very efficient ways to take it: the usual Bayer Aspirin contains 325 mg of aspirin, while the lower dose, which also reduces the chance of a heart attack, contains 81 mg.
Another way to decrease your risk is via NSAIDs, more commonly known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. People who had a regular intake of NSAIDs over 5 years or more reduced their colorectal cancer chances to 30 and even 45 percent, again, compared to those who took no painkillers. Ibuprofen and naproxen are just some examples of NSAIDs which can help you in case you want to start these treatments.
The results have been reviewed and are going to be published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on the first edition from September and the study is an extension of previous studies, which also found out that regular aspirin intakes can help against colorectal cancer.
However researchers wanted to put an end to “the probabily” of aspirin helping against cancer and make sure it was real. What the study did not manage to conclude was the exact dose of aspirin or NSAIDs a patient needs to take so that they can be effectively protected. Moreover, the exact period of time in which this treatment needs to occur has yet to be established.
Yet researchers are looking towards the future with hope, having stated that there is a good reason to believe that aspirin and NSAIDs can impede the development of colorectal cancer since they block a chemical known as prostaglandin, a chemical which helps colon cancer spread more easily.
In the U.S., colorectal cancer is the fourth most devastating type of non-skin cancer, the most destructive ones being lung, breast and prostate cancers. Approximately 133,000 Americans will have to face colorectal cancer every year and around 50,000 will die from it. Thus, it is wonderful that we managed to find a way to slow it down.
Photo Credits wikimedia.org
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