High Aspirin Doses Prevent Colon Polyps

Women who take large doses of aspirin regularly seem to have a lower risk of the type of colon polyps that can become cancerous. Higher doses of aspirin were associated with an even lower risk, but that could be problematic as large doses of aspirin can cause bleeding and other side effects. These higher doses, as many as 14 tablets per week, were much higher than those recommended to stave off heart disease. "At this point, we cannot recommend that people take higher doses until we do more studies to determine the overall risks and benefits," says Dr. Andrew T. Chan, lead author of a study appearing in the February issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine and a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.