Study – Aspirin Can Cut Stroke Risk for Women

MIDDLE-AGE women can cut their risk of strokes but not heart attacks by regularly taking low doses of aspirin, and the pills help prevent both problems in women 65 and older, a major study found yesterday.

The results are opposite to what is known about aspirin in men, where its benefit for stroke is limited and its ability to prevent heart problems is legendary.

Since women proportionately suffer more strokes and men more heart attacks, this is generally good news, specialists said.

Researchers also found that taking vitamin E did no good for women of any age, confirming a study last autumn that concluded supplements of this nutrient could even be harmful.

The new information comes from the US Women’s Health Study, the first rigorous, scientific test of whether long-term use of aspirin or vitamin E made a difference in cardiovascular risk in females. Previous research has been almost exclusively in males.

Findings were reported yesterday at an American College of Cardiology meeting in Florida.

The study has “major public health implications,” said Dr Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the research with the National Cancer Institute.

“In contrast to men, aspirin did not reduce the risk of nonfatal or fatal heart attacks in women of all ages but did so in women over age 65,” she said.

The study was led by Julie Buring, Dr Paul Ridker and others at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.