New Look at Aspirin

Of all the pharmaceuticals in the medicine chest, none is more widely used than aspirin. In the U.S. alone, some $103 million worth of aspirin tablets are consumed each year by people seeking relief from colds, headaches and arthritis. Despite the fact that doctors have been recommending the use of aspirin for more than 75 years, they still know little about how it works or why it is so effective. Now, as a result of continuing research, doctors are questioning one traditional use and looking into a possible new application of the world's first wonder drug.

The use of aspirin to fight the fever, scratchy throat, headache and general malaise of the common cold is being reappraised as a result of a study conducted at Chicago's University of Illinois Medical Center. Doctors at the school dosed 45 healthy young volunteers with nose drops containing common cold viruses, then treated 25 of the patients with aspirin while the other 20 were given a placebo.

Sharing Infection. Taking regular samplings after the volunteers developed colds, the researchers found that the nasal drippings of aspirin users more often contained virus than those of the nonusers. The aspirin users were thus more likely to spread their viruses and the colds they can cause. Reason: though the aspirin did not cure the colds, it relieved the symptoms sufficiently to allow the victims to go about their daily routines.

Two other studies, involving some 2,000 British and American heart attack victims, revealed that aspirin users have a lower recurrence of coronaries than nonusers. These findings fit in with earlier observations showing that aspirin inhibits the aggregation of platelets--blood components involved in clotting; for this reason, doctors have recommended against its use by women about to deliver babies or others facing major surgery. Large doses of aspirin can cause serious bleeding in the stomach--especially in ulcer victims--and can also damage the kidneys.

The new studies seem to show that aspirin's anticlotting properties may prove helpful against heart attacks and strokes. Physicians are not yet ready to recommend a daily dose of aspirin as a cure-all for coronary patients, but the federally sponsored National Coronary Drug Project has started a large-scale study of this possible new use for an old drug.

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