aspirin

In people with risk factors for developing heart disease, taking an aspirin a day can prevent heart attacks. Now three new studies have found that a daily dose of aspirin can also decrease your risk of getting cancer.

All studies were published in The Lancet, a leading peer-reviewed medical journal. The first found that patients had a 25 percent lower risk of developing cancer if they took daily aspirin for three years, and a 37 percent lower risk if they took aspirin for five years. The other studies found that daily aspirin helped prevent the growth and spread of cancers, and that taking aspirin regularly reduces your risk of dying from solid cancers like lung, colon, and prostate (vs blood cancers like leukemia) by 35 percent. Researchers think that the same reason aspirin helps your heart — by thinning your blood so that it doesn't clot at already clogged arteries — also helps prevent platelets from spreading cancerous cells throughout your body.

Not everyone should start a daily aspirin regimen, and there are certain risks associated with taking daily aspirin, so be sure to talk to your doctor. But it's good news that a simple step like a daily aspirin pill can help prevent diseases that affect us as we age.

DrSugar is in the house! This week she gives us the skinny on OTC pain medications.

Dear DrSugar,
Do the different types of over-the-counter pain relievers work better for different problems? What should I take for a headache — is aspirin better than ibuprofen? What should I take if I have a fever or the flu? Is there one that's best for dealing with swelling for twists and sprains? What about a pulled muscle? I look in my medicine cabinet and don't know what to take for what ails me. Thanks!
— Pained and Confused

This is a great question since there are so many options for over-the-counter pain relief available, making it quite difficult to keep straight which one is good for different problems! To learn more about the different OTC pain medications and which one to use for different medical problems, keep reading!

Do you know what's in your medicine cabinet? A recent report in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that while over-the-counter medicine use is prevalent, many people don't know much about the active ingredients in popular painkillers like Advil and Tylenol.

When asked about the difference between common pain relief brands, most of the study's participants didn't know what was in Tylenol, Advil, or Aleve, or that overdosing on Tylenol, for example, could lead to serious liver damage.

While you may not think twice about popping a few pills the day after a particularly strenuous boot camp session, the fact is that the side effects from overdosing on painkillers can be serious. In fact, acetaminophen overdose continues to be the leading cause of liver failure in the United States.

Confused about whether you should take Tylenol or Advil for a pain, or what the correct dosage is? Read on for a chart of the most common OTC painkillers on the market after the break.