However, aspirin has not been approved by the FDA for prophylactic use of heart disease. The consensus among many physicians is that by taking a low dose daily aspirin elderly Americans can lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attacks, colon cancer and dementia. For people without heart disease, I think almost everybody with risk factors should take daily aspirin unless there is a reason not to. What happens before many heart attacks is that C-reactive protein induces atherosclerotic plaque on the arterial wall to burst open like popcorn, blocking a coronary artery, and causing the heart attack. Aspirin specifically suppresses C-reactive protein.
Many people take low-dose aspirin to inhibit abnormal blood clot formation inside of arteries.
The newer studies show that aspirin may also protect against heart attack by suppressing C-reactive protein. Aspirin may protect in ways that supplements do not. Cancers Heart disease claims more lives each year than any other disease, whereas, cancer has the second highest mortality rate. The American Cancer Society epidemiologists found that while low dose aspirin use had no effect on fatal cancers of most organ systems, the risks were greatly reduced for fatal cancers of the esophagus, stomach, rectum and colon. Further studies to determine the protective effect of aspirin against both squamous cell esophageal carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the esophagus are indicated.