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A comment on Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue to Show. Parent comment

Re:Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue... by Florin_Andrei on Monday April 30, 2012 @02:02PM (#3910442)
If there's a marked decrease in cancer, associated with a mild increase in gastro-whatever bleeding, then it's probably a good trade-off.
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Re:Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue... by cpeterso on Monday April 30, 2012 @08:32PM (#3912349)
What if the gastrointestinal bleeding is the cause of the decrease in cancer?
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Re:Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue... by aespinoza on Monday April 30, 2012 @02:11PM (#3910493)
If it is mild, it might. I don't know if everybody is willing to take that trade-off. It seems like fixing one problem with another problem.
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Re:Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue... by Florin_Andrei on Monday April 30, 2012 @05:50PM (#3911726)
It's funny, though, how everyone already takes similar trade-offs all the time. E.g., we're trading a high risk of dying a violent death at the hands (or claws) of enemies and predators (life in the primeval savanna) for a lower risk of dying of obesity, diabetes, and so on (modern "civilized" life).
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Re:Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue... by philwelch on Tuesday May 01, 2012 @08:16AM (#3913953)
No one's making that choice, it just kind of happened.
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Re:Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue... by nknight on Monday April 30, 2012 @02:51PM (#3910737)
That bleeding can cause other problems like anemia, and aspirin can also cause ulcers, which besides the discomfort, can become a serious medical emergency.

This is truly a balancing act, and we really don't know enough to balance it for generally-healthy people at large.

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