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Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#51

Post by snerbles »

nostromo wrote: post #44
matt4077 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acetaminophen in particular is somewhat scary. Just 2.5x the recommended maximal daily dose of 4g can lead to complete liver failure. With alcohol, other medication, or existing damage, much less could be enough.

A friend of mine swears that the reason acetaminophen is added to opioids (like hydrocodone) is so that you cant abuse the opioid without being poisoned by the acetaminophen. If true, it's alarming that the way to "prevent abuse" is to poison the patient.

A more extreme example of this concept is denatured alcohol, which is ethanol adulterated to deter consumption.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatured_alcohol

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#52

Post by oxide »

mod wrote: post #38
Reason077 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a small amount of Asprin, if taken regularly, will mess up your stomach in my experience! I guess not everyone is sensitive to it, but for me I've avoided Asprin (and Ibuprofen, another NSAID drug) for years because of this.

What's 'regular?' I use ibprufen exclusively, without stomach issues. But not daily. I probably take it once per week on average. Usually when lacking caffeine has caused a headache. Or eyestrain, occasionally. Those are probably the issues I should fix, though.

>But not daily. I probably take it once per week on average.

My grandmother shits and pukes blood if she takes NSAIDs of any kind, from long-term, daily misuse. I'm not exaggerating even a little bit, I wish I was.

A direct result of being denied access to proper pain relief, mind you, mainly because she lived her entire life without health insurance. Until she turned 65 and qualified for Medicare last year. I had to take every NSAID out of the house, and throw them away, because every time she ran out of opiates for pain relief she'd over-compensate with a handful of NSAIDs which resulted in some scary events, including coffee ground bowel movements which were in fact blood from her stomach. As well as constant vomiting, etc.

My grandfather is similarly damaged from being recklessly over-prescribed NSAIDs, namely 800mg ibuprofen up to 8 times per day, resulting in shitting and puking up blood. He can't have more than an 81mg aspirin now.

/anecdotal evidence

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#53

Post by jaggederest »

nostromo wrote: post #44
matt4077 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acetaminophen in particular is somewhat scary. Just 2.5x the recommended maximal daily dose of 4g can lead to complete liver failure. With alcohol, other medication, or existing damage, much less could be enough.

A friend of mine swears that the reason acetaminophen is added to opioids (like hydrocodone) is so that you cant abuse the opioid without being poisoned by the acetaminophen. If true, it's alarming that the way to "prevent abuse" is to poison the patient.

That is completely correct. It also has synergistic effects as a pain reliever, but it's mainly there to deter abuse.

Of course, addicts have found ways to extract the opiates from the adulterants, so it's not even effective.

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#54

Post by noam87 »

(on my phone right now)

Hasn't this been known for a while now? (with COX-2 NSAIDs specifically, like Advil). Even the standard book "The Biology Of Cancer" (2014) mentions it in passing in one of the later chapters.

I believe there's even been trials where NSAID is applied topically during biopsy, reducing chance of mets.

If I recall correctly, suspected mechanism is some sort of correlation between COX-2 inhibition and decreased expression of CTLA4/PD-1.

It's kind of sad, but it seems that too often vital lines of research sit on university shelves for years before anything practical is done about it :/

(disclaimer: not an expert; just guy with cancer.)

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#55

Post by douche »

swsieber wrote: post #6
swah wrote: post #2

Surely this would have been discovered by patients by accident, if it was true?

I don't think so - a cancer patient is probably taking/doing so many things for treatment that they wouldn't think to attribute it to cancer. It could explain people eating healthy to get rid of cancer instead of chemo or traditional treatments - maybe they take aspirin too. I know I wouldn't give aspirin a second thought if I had cancer.

They really do put you on some massive cocktails - notably large doses of prednisone, which is also a massively effective anti-inflammatory - so I can imagine it would be hard to pick out the causes precisely.

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#56

Post by fauigerzigerk »

aantix wrote: post #16

As for the internal bleeding risks, I was wondering what the actual numbers were. This is based on one low dose aspirin a day. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2006.... "These results translate into an absolute rate increase with aspirin above placebo (the incidence of cases of major GI bleeding attributable to low-dose aspirin) of 0.12% per year (95% CI: 0.070.19% per year).[20] Based on this v…

GI bleeding is just one issue though. The other perhaps more scary one is hermorrhagic stroke.

I used to take low dose aspirin for 9 months a couple of years ago, but I stopped taking it after a blood vessel in my mouth suddenly bulged hugely and my (unrelated) nose bleeds became difficult to stop.

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#57

Post by Swizec »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #42
Swizec wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the opposite experience. My body and mind function best with regular small meals every 3 or 4 hours. With that regime I have constant energy without ups and lulls. It's great. When I do go too long without eating, I feel fine and I don't feel particularly hungry. But people around me say that I become uncommunicative, quarelsome, and that I tend to just kind of sit there and stare in front of me unmovingly. Pe…

Might be eating too many carbs, which spike blood sugar, and tend to produce the symptoms you mention. Still, don't need to fast all day to fix the problem.

Funnily only about 30% of my calories come from carbs.

Except on half marathon days. I can't digest enough food to recover from a 2000 calorie run without carbs

I've tried going below 30% carbs but it makes me unstoppably crave chocolate.

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#58

Post by venning »

tptacek wrote: post #15
iplaw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I abstain from food between 8PM and 12PM Monday - Friday, adjusting for training schedules and such. It really helps me keep my GI tract clear, reduces inflammation, resulted in weight loss, etc. without any effect on my cycling fitness. IF (or IMF as some people call it) is amazing.

I've fasted from ~8P to ~3P every day for coming up on 2 years and apart from making me more mindful of what I eat and drastically reducing my appetite I've experienced basically no other health benefits. IF is increasingly well studied and it is not especially amazing. (I like it a lot. Just saying.)

Is that time a typo? Are you saying that there is only a 5 hour block of the day when you eat? (From 3pm to 8pm.)

Re: Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

#59

Post by tptacek »

venning wrote: post #58
tptacek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've fasted from ~8P to ~3P every day for coming up on 2 years and apart from making me more mindful of what I eat and drastically reducing my appetite I've experienced basically no other health benefits. IF is increasingly well studied and it is not especially amazing. (I like it a lot. Just saying.)

Is that time a typo? Are you saying that there is only a 5 hour block of the day when you eat? (From 3pm to 8pm.)

Correct. That's what IF means.
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